Palestinians recoiling from suicide bombs

When news spread that a suicide bomber killed five Israelis in a Tel Aviv nightclub last weekend, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade sought refuge.

Fearing reprisal from Israel, the Palestinian militants huddled inside a grungy dorm room near what used to be Yasser Arafat's bunker. But they weren't there to cheer the attack. Instead, they frowned on the blast that shattered the Israeli-Palestinian truce declared last month.

"We are not with this operation. The timing is wrong,'' said an Aqsa member wearing black-and-white Fila sneakers who called himself Abu Yazan. "We are now talking about a period of [truce]. The rules state that we do not attack.''

The comment was a rare jab at a suicide bomber - especially coming from a fellow militant - and it reflects a growing consensus among Palestinians that the attack had damaged the standing of newly elected President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as the livelihoods of Palestinians.

Indeed, after years of celebrating suicide attackers as heroes, Palestinians are souring on suicide-bombings like the one last weekend, which emboldens many of them to question

whether strikes at Israel will hasten their goal of establishing an independent state. It's a shift many link to the election of Mr. Abbas - a vocal critic of the militarization of the Palestinian uprising - as well as the emerging détente with Israel.

Amid Israeli outrage and international affront in the wake of the attack, Abbas called the perpetrators mukharebin,' Arabic for saboteurs, and a term which observers said has never before been applied to suicide bombers.

At a Palestinian conference in London Tuesday hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Abbas said that all Palestinians condemned the Tel Aviv attack. And he pledged to improve the Palestinian Authority's security services, a step deemed critical to reining in militants.

Israeli officials aren't convinced. "We were disappointed there was no mention of the need to dismantle terror organizations," an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters.

Even Islamic Jihad tried to avoid claiming responsibility before a bomber's farewell video emerged to establish a link.

Just as telling was the reaction in Deir el Ghusun, the West Bank hometown of Abdallah Badran. The young bomber's portrait was not included in the "martyrdom'' posters which have become a standard memorial format. And instead of a traditional bittersweet celebration, the bomber's family greeted the news with remorse, according to an account in the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam.

"The miserable, somber atmosphere in this house ... expressed truthfully the situation of 'suicide bombers' during this particular stage in the lives of the Palestinians,' '' wrote Hasan El Batal in an opinion piece in Al Ayyam. "This suicide attack has stripped suicidal attacks from the honorary ranks of 'martyrdom'.... It is a sad death and a sadder grief.''

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