In late March 2002 a suicide bomber blew himself up in a hotel in the town of Netanya in Israel, killing himself and twenty others. More than 130 people were injured in the blast. The bomber was discovered to have been a member of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, a group of radical Islamic fundamentalists opposed to the existence of Israel in any form. Although suicide bombings are not uncommon in Israel, the Netanya hotel bombing was significant for two reasons: One, it occurred during the sacred Jewish holiday of Passover, and so appeared to be a direct assault not only on Jewish civilians but also on the very fabric of Jewish culture; and two, the bombing came just days after the unveiling of an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan drafted by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which sought to end the long-standing Middle East conflict. This pattern of terrorist...