Citation

Golan D, Rosenblatt JD. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2011; 108(15): E53-E54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1016378108

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Haushofer et al. (Haushofer J, Bilettzki A, Kanwisher N (2010) Both sides retaliate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 07:17927-17932.) set out to study the causal factors that perpetuate violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They attribute 10% and 4% of casualties to Palestinian and Israeli retaliation, respectively; these percentages are immaterial and statistically insignificant, thus failing to show the cycle of violence. Reanalyzing the same data while addressing the shortcomings in statistical analysis as detailed below, we find that the nature of the conflict varies over time. Some periods display a cycle of violence regimen, whereas in most periods, retaliation explains a minuscule portion of events, suggesting that the parties display no statistical regularity in their actions. The results also show the shift in retaliation strategies on the Palestinian side from killings to Qassam attacks, which are typically smaller than the Israeli retaliation effect.

Language: en