Why The Bombers Keep Coming

By DAVID VAN BIEMA

Osama Bahar did not wear a beard. He was a devout Muslim--probably more so than his seven siblings, says his father Muhammed--but not a fundamentalist. He played soccer and took karate lessons, and unlike many young Palestinians, he had a job (at $450 a month), as a bank guard. Yet two Saturdays ago, after a Ramadan breaking-of-the-fast dinner with his family in the town of Abu Dis and prayer at the mosque across the street, Osama, 25, found his way to the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in downtown Jerusalem and blew himself up. Seconds later, his best friend, Nabil Halabiyeh, did the same. Ten Israelis died, and 188 were wounded. Muhammed notes that his son was jailed by Israel for four years for connections with the militant Hamas movement, but he seems perplexed by Osama's last deed. "If you had told me that afternoon that he was going to a suicide attack," he says, "I wouldn't have believed you."

Suicide bombing is a relatively new horror undergoing constant refinement. It was pioneered in the early '80s by Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim extremist group Hizballah, which was inspired by Iran's use of human minesweepers during its war with Iraq. In one assault a fanatic drove a truckful of explosives into a U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, killing 241 service members. Starting in 1994, Hamas and another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, took up the practice. Since then, 82 Palestinian suicide bombers--their compatriots call them shahids or martyrs--have killed themselves and slaughtered 239 victims.

Islam lauds martyrdom. The traditions of Muhammad state that a shahid's sins will be forgiven when he sheds his first drop of blood, that he can admit 70 relatives to paradise and will himself be married there to 72 beautiful virgins, a point emphasized by Osama bin Laden. (Some authorities, however, feel that causing one's own death categorically disqualifies one as a martyr.)

In the past, suicide bombings were controversial among Palestinians. In early 1996, only 20% of Palestinians supported the practice. Today about 70% do. At one time, to get bombers to commit, the militant groups would put recruits through intensive, months-long religious tutoring that amounted to brainwashing. Now, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are swamped with volunteers who need little indoctrination.

One reason is a popular recognition of the method's efficiency. Something like $1,000 buys a smart bomb that goes where the Israelis are, knows when to abort a mission and is far harder to spot than a booby-trapped briefcase. Notes Israeli Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau: "A suicide bomber is a two-legged missile. Once it's launched, it's very difficult to intercept."

Another reason for the enrollment surge is that Palestinians now view their struggle less as a liberation conflict and more as war against an implacable enemy intent on their destruction (just as most Israelis are now convinced the Palestinians want to wipe them off the map). "The starting point is not religion," says a cleric. "It is a state of desperation at facing Ariel Sharon and his army."

And a new generation of young men has its own battle scars to avenge. A friend named Hassan offers that while Osama Bahar was in prison, Israeli interrogators hung him by his arms from the ceiling, spat in his face and mocked Islam. (Israeli authorities had no comment.) Says Hassan: "He always said he would avenge the mistreatment." In the case of grudges like that, a beard is optional.

--By David Van Biema. Reported by Jamil Hamad/Abu Dis, Azadeh Moaveni/Tehran, Amany Radwan/Cairo and Matt Rees/Jerusalem

With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Abu Dis, Azadeh Moaveni/Tehran, Amany Radwan/Cairo and Matt Rees/Jerusalem