JERUSALEM -- The Hebron massacre has unleashed a wave of profound soul-searching among Israeli Jews, who are questioning what went wrong in their society, their politics -- and even the very nature of the Jewish state -- to lead a militant settler to murder Moslems at prayer.


It seems clear the massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein has stirred new doubts among many Israelis about the messianic nationalism that motivated the most zealous Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The killings may also accelerate Israel's agonizing debate about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the fate of 110,000 Jewish settlers who live there.


Israelis are worried the massacre will trigger retribution, and it already appears to have dampened much of the optimism that remained from the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization: Thursday, the PLO insisted that Israel's release of 400 more Arab prisoners would not be enough to revive talks.


Despite feelings of shame over the murders, many Israelis questioned here did not want to evacuate Jewish settlements and did not favor disarming them. And, for now, Israelis appear to remain locked in its sharp polarization between hawks and doves.


While only a tiny fraction of settlers support Goldstein's extremist views, a significant part of the settler movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip believes in a mixture of messianic purpose and nationalism.


But the massacre has provoked introspection and denunciations, not the least of which was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's speech to parliament this week in which he called Goldstein "a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism."


"There has been a tremendous blow inflicted on the connection between religion and nationalism in Israel," said political scientist Yaron Ezrahi, a Hebrew University professor. "Despite the fact this man was an extremist, the connection between religious symbolism and the massacre confirms the worst expectations and doubts of the secular community."


Even among the Jewish settlers, questions are being asked about whether they should have raised alarms earlier about the most militant zealots.


"I am sorry and deeply distressed that the distinctions between us and them wasn't made earlier," said Vered Noam, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim, outside Jerusalem. "On the outer fringes of our group, there are dangerous elements and they cannot be part of us any more. They are far from us morally, spiritually, religiously, politically and ideologically."


"Are they Zionists? Of course not," she added. "But that is hardly the question. They are not human. I cannot understand them, not as a Jew, a Zionist, a human being."


"This was a greater incident than any other," said Shmuel Langer, a Jerusalem businessman, "because it was in a house of prayer and because it was so humiliating. He shot them in the back, while they were bending. They were humbling themselves to their God, and he shot them. I can't stop thinking about that image.


Israelis are reluctant to disarm the settlers or evacuate them.


"I think it's impossible to disarm the settlers," said Norah Mazar, a history student at Hebrew University. "They are living there, in a war, and everyone carries a gun, with their finger on the trigger.


"Just yesterday, I was sitting on a bus, talking to an Arab, and he smiled and waved when he got off. I got very sad. I think coexistence is not impossible; I still think it can happen. But I don't know how to get there."