Suicide bombings of the style that are familiar to Israel were once thought to be an unlikely form of attack in the United States . In Israel, this mode of attack was brought on by a necessity borne out of stringent security measures, which made it extremely hard to pull off a conventional bombing ? suspicious packages would be too quickly reported, as would cars parked too closely to crowded venues. A human-borne bomb was the best way to get an explosive charge up close to targets. It was the ultimate precision-guided weapon. It could adapt midway through delivery to a target, could change direction to a more appealing target on a dime, and could act and deceive its way into position.

Suicide bombings also sent a message of desperation to a shocked western world. In Israel, it was used by Palestinians to communicate the desperation of their situation to the international community.