Israel's shock at Israeli bomber

Israelis fear that they face an enemy within

By Caroline Hawley in Jerusalem

Israelis - both Jews and Arabs - are busy digesting the implications of Sunday's suicide bombing in the coastal town of Naharia, which police say was carried out, for the first time, by an Israeli Arab.

They have identified him from papers he was carrying as Muhammad Habashi, a middle-aged man from the Galilee village of Abu Snan.

The Arab minority, in its tragic situation is torn between its desire to be an inseparable part of the state of Israel and its desire to be an inseparable part of the Palestinian nation

Yedioth Ahronoth

As the authorities await conclusive proof of his identity from DNA tests, many are questioning what could have led an Israeli citizen to blow himself up at a crowded railway station.

Israeli Arabs are the Palestinians who remained in Israel as most of their compatriots fled in the fighting that followed the country's establishment in 1948.

They now make up a million-strong community.

'Second-class citizens'

But although they carry Israeli citizenship, they complain that they are treated as second-class citizens and that their towns and villages receive significantly less government funding than Jewish municipalities.

Muhammad Habashi is described by Yedioth Ahronoth as an "anomaly"

Their resentment against Israel, and their identification with the Palestinian cause, increased during the first Palestinian uprising, and, again, during the current conflict.

The killing, by Israeli troops, of 13 Israeli Arabs demonstrating in support of the uprising last October further inflamed tensions.

Israeli security officials say that over the past few months some Israeli Arabs have been involved in attacks on Israelis.

But, as an editorial in the mass circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth points out, most Israeli Arabs have not participated in the Palestinian uprising "despite the years of privation, despite the terribly high poverty rate, despite the clear discrimination that is directed by the state of Israel itself."

Everyone here is upset - everyone condemns it

Resident of Abu Snan

The paper describes Muhammad Habashi, who was a member of Israel's Islamic movement, as an "anomaly," and argues that his suicide attack should not cause Israelis to panic.

"The Arab minority, in its tragic situation is torn between its desire to be an inseparable part of the state of Israel and its desire to be an inseparable part of the Palestinian nation," Yedioth writes.

"Thus far, this conflict is resolved every day and every hour on the side of Israeli citizenship."

Israeli Arabs upset

The reaction of most Israeli Arabs to the attack bears the argument out.

"Everyone here is upset," one resident of Abu Snan told Israel radio. "Every one condemns it."

But the bombing has increased Israelis' fears that they could face an "enemy within" that would be extremely difficult to guard against.

Israel takes stringent security measures against the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.

But it would be almost impossible for it to justify imposing similar restrictions on the movement of its own citizens.