THE ZEALOTS-AS-SUICIDE-KILLERS MEME appears again. According to the publisher's blurb reproduced by OpenDemocracy, Robert A. Pape makes this claim in his new book:

“Dying to win: why suicide terrorists do it”
by Robert A. Pape
Random House (US) / Gibson Square (UK) | August 2006 (UK) | ISBN 0679454713

What the publisher says: “In Dying to Win Robert Pape presents the findings of the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. Discrediting widely-held misconceptions on suicide terrorism, he creates for the first time a clear psychological, sociological and strategic profile for combating suicide attacks. His thesis — initially drawn from the 354 attacks throughout the world up to 2003 — has been remarkably born out by the ones that have followed (the 192 attacks from 2004 up to May 2006 are included in Dying to Win). Pape also examines the early practitioners of this guerrilla tactic, including the ancient Jewish Zealots, who in A.D. 66 wished to liberate themselves from Roman occupation; the Ismaili Assassins, a Shi’ite Muslim sect in northern Iran in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; World War II’s Japanese kamikaze pilots, three thousand of whom crashed into U.S. naval vessels; and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a secular, Marxist-Leninist organization responsible for more suicide terrorist attacks than any other group in history.”

(My underscoring.) The "Zealots" (i.e., the Sicarii) were murderous thugs and carried out targeted assassinations, but they were not suicide killers. I have replied to this claim in detail here and here and have more on the Sicarii here. If Pape really does make this claim (and publishers' blurbs are not always the most accurate source for the content of a book), it doesn't inspire confidence in the book's research. In any case, once a claim like this starts, it tends to be perpetuated, because very few people will bother to check the original sources to see if it's true.