Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror.(Brief Article)(Book Review)

* Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror MIA BLOOM. Columbia Univ., $24.95 (272p) ISBN 0-231-13320-0

An "explanation of the unexplainable," this lucid and comprehensive study of the historical roots and contemporary motivations of suicide terror is a major study. Bloom's historical range is formidable; the first eight chapters are a marvel of historical compression, moving from the Zealots of first-century Judea to the Japanese kamikaze of WWII within a few bleak but instructive pages. Bloom stresses that suicide bombings can only thrive with the implied consent of an aggrieved population, which can be withdrawn: the Omagh bombing of 1998, for example, was a …