In the wake of the recent Islamic militant suicide bombing in Israel -- yet one more blow to the 1993 Israel-PLO peace treaty -- it is important for the Western world to understand why the Hamas movement has such a strong popular following, says a UC Davis scholar. A combination of foot-dragging by top Israeli and Palestinian officials, economic instability, and both Israeli and Palestinian secular officials' lack of understanding of the sophisticated, transnational approach of the Hamas has prompted growth in, and loyalty to, the Hamas resistance movement, says Smadar Lavie, a professor of anthropology and critical theory and the author of "The Poetics of Military Occupation." Rather than being the primordial, religious zealots often depicted in the Western press, the Hamas operates essentially as a transnational "company of ideas." The group offers badly needed services and infrastructure that neither Israel nor Palestine can fulfill, on the one hand, and ideologies of Muslim globality, on the other, Lavie says. To stem future Hamas terrorist actions, Lavie suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin open the borders for jobs, stop confiscating lands and understand the cultural context of the popularity of the Islamists. "He must finish the implementation of the landmark Oslo agreement fast and make swift decisions," Lavie says. PLO Leader Yasser Arafat, on the other hand, has less power over the situation, but should incorporate more grassroots leadership for the West Bank and Gaza.