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Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/editors-note
Beyond Belief
[Atlantic Monthly] James Bennet - Once, as the second intifada was nearing its height, I met with a Hamas man in Gaza City to talk about suicidal killing. He had written his master's thesis on martyrdom. Unlike other Hamas leaders, he had actually sent one of his own children to his death, in an attack on an Israeli settlement. To him, suicide bombings were valuable, not just because they could kill Israelis but because they confounded the unbelieving world, signaling "that we no longer love this life." Matter-of-factly, he told me that the Palestinians might have to sacrifice half the rising generation to drive the Israelis out and rule all Palestine again. He wound up sacrificing most of his own family. Israel killed the Hamas man, Nizar Rayyan, in January by dropping a bomb on his house.