Are you ready? Tomorrow you will be in Paradise.

The Times Online has this look into the world of Palestinian suicide bombers from the perspective of one who survived, yet has no regrets:

“In the spring of 1993, I began to pester our military leaders to let me do an operation,” he said. “It was around the time of the Oslo accords, and it was quiet, too quiet. I wanted to do an operation that would incite others to do the same. Finally, I was given the green light to leave Gaza for an operation inside Israel.”

While we get a fascinating glimpse into the thinking of suicide bombers and into the organizational infrastructure that nurtures them, it leaves me wondering how much of their motivation we can really explain from a politico-economic perspective.

It's certainly plausible that there is hopelessness induced a political situation that's a de facto mob-oligarchy, ostensibly controlled by the Palestinian Authority, but dominated by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other externally-financed terror groups.

And what must the $3,000-$5,000 payment to their families seem like in an economy that had (in 2002) a per-capita GDP of $800 (the US per-capita economic output was $37,800 in 2003; even Iraq was $1,500) and around a 50% unemployement rate? In that light, Saddam Hussein's $25,000 bonus to suicide bombers' families must have seemed like immeasurable wealth.

Nevertheless, too many on both the left and right seem oblivious to the religious component. This article shows the cultivation of the belief that, in addition to killing "infidels" and providing benefits for your survivors, "martyrdom operations" provide the assurance of salvation.