The very latest Purim costume in Sderot

You gotta hand it to the kids to be mentally stable enough to joke about the daily threats to their lives.

Of course, AP shows its deep knowledge of the Middle East conflict in its caption:

Israeli children, one dressed as a rocket, participate in Purim celebrations at their school in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Rockets are fired almost daily towards southern Israel by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel declared a heightened security alert on Wednesday and barred Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering the country, fearing Hezbollah guerrillas may try to carry out a major attack during Purim celebrations this week. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Hezbollah? I gues it is easier to make a mistake like that than to say:

...fearing Fatah (Tanzim /Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades), Hamas (Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Jerusalem Battalions), The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (The Martyr Abu ‘Ali Mustafa Battalions), The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, or The Popular Resistance Committees (The Salah al-Din Brigades) guerrillas...

Their caption can only be so long, after all.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad sends me a similar picture - of a kid dressed up as a terrorist.

UPDATE 2: Beer7 , an Israeli who lives in Be'er Sheva and blogs in German, links here but adds a psychological definition from Dr. Sanity:

Level 4 Defense Mechanisms are common among most “healthy” adults and are considered the most “mature”. Many of them have their origins in the “immature” level, but have been honed by the individual to optimize his/her success in life and relationships. Use of these defenses gives the user pleasure and feelings of mastery. For the user, these defenses help them to integrate many conflicting emotions and thoughts and still be effective; and for the beholder their use by someone is viewed as a virtue. They include:

(…)

Humor - overt expression of ideas and feelings (especially those that are unpleasant to focus on or too terrible to talk about) that gives pleasure to others; (humor lets you call a spade a spade, while “wit” is actually a form of displacement)