Does it seem to you? In my book, it is a shame that there was no outrage in Lebanon.

Hysteria and inflationary language isn’t as impressive as you might think.

The articles mention in particular these two studies, though I made sure that each reference also adds further content (including references to other studies). Your criticism and description of the content is unfounded. I was too cautious in my original objection, though – the myth isn’t merely incorrect, it’s upside-down. There is a link between poverty, education, social status and terrorism: the opposite of what most people suppose.

All this is just to say that presenting Kuntar as being unusual, not fitting the profile, is wrong (the political implications of that – seems irrelevant in this context). Actually, I went to Norm’s blog with Linda’s article and I see that that paragraph is followed by another which explicitly addresses the issue, so I guess my post was in error in that sense.

And Lisa: I suppose hearing the effort you put into translating the article is ‘pointless’ can be aggravating – should’ve been more careful with the phrasing.
I still don’t see what we can learn from the interview, though (and generally, from interviewees who’re obfuscating the truth and misrepresenting their own views).
The Guardian did not have the important addendum, so the readers are left with a distorted view.

Daniel: Re. my translation for the Guardian – I work for money, not praise. It’s nice to receive both, of course, but the latter is not essential. I am not at all bothered by criticism from anonymous sources who have demonstrated their inability or unwillingness to understand the article’s content and / or purpose.. Lisa

Your insistence is clearly that of someone whose agenda is to scream wolf at any middle-class educated Arab. Demonisation at its best. That is simply despicable.

You are right: the issue does indeed have obvious political implications. Which you are attempting to exploit in the ugliest of ways.

In any event, everyone knows that besides poverty, multiple reasons make a terrorist – ethnic, religious, tribal conflicts are at least as important.
The articles you cite themselves oft referenced studies which, if you bother to look at (e.g. Abadie (2004) or Krueger and Laitin (2003), are clearly more subtle than you seem to believe things are. And while a direct correlation between the participation in violent acts/terrorism may be weaker than we first thought it was, only the feeble-minded will discard the link as a ‘myth’. Indirect links, through education, political freedom and host of other variables factor in.

That poverty is associated with terrorism is undeniable. It’s just a tad more complicated than you first thought – and way more important that you wish to deny.