Cognitive Dissonance of the Week

Today's Washington Post includes a front-page article about a Palestinian family, which, when their 12 year-old son died, allowed the dead boy's organs to be harvested and transplanted--to Israelis. Six Israelis, including five Jews, received the Ahmed Khatib's heart, lungs liver and kidneys; since then, one patient died, but the remaining five are recovering. While surprising, the family's decision was touching and admirable.

But there's more to the story and the coverage by the press. The boy was killed by Israelis soldiers in Jenin:

To the youths of Ahmed's neighborhood, the gunmen staring from the posters or swaggering around the streets were heroes. Ahmed collected the martyrs' posters, bringing them home only to have his mother tear them up. He threw rocks at army Jeeps. A few days before he died, he left a drawing of a heart on Zbeida's doorstep, said the guerrilla leader, who helped shoulder his coffin to the grave.

Ahmed . . .was shot twice last week by Israeli soldiers in what the military said was a mistake made during the heat of street fighting near their house. The boy had been holding a toy gun. He died two days later in an Israeli hospital. . .

Ahmad Tawfiq, 11, was standing three feet away when the bullets struck Ahmed that day. He said Ahmed held a toy gun shaped like an Uzi and that the boys stood among five Palestinian fighters exchanging gunfire with Israeli soldiers in Jeeps.

Accompanying the story is a photo, credited to the Associated Press's Emilio Morenatti, with a print-edition caption written by the Post:



A Palestinian relative mourns at Ahmed Khatb's funeral Nov. 6. The boy's family donated his organs to Israeli patients.

However, the Post's web edition changes the caption:

A relative mourns at Ahmed Khatib's funeral in the West Bank town of Jenin. Next to him, a boy plays with a toy gun.

My questions:

1. "Toy" gun? I don't think so--the boy is resting the gun on his knee; the creases in his pants are proof this gun's heavy. Were the gun plastic, the boy would have had it in two hands raised in the air.



2. "Playing" with the IDF? Even were the gun fake (which it isn't), one doesn't bring plastic weapons to a front-row seat at the Intifada. Even a twelve year-old knows that; his parents certainly do. But to Palestinians Khatib's death is ammunition for the on going opera "Poor, poor Palestine," in which Israeli soldiers continuously "murder" innocent young Arabs for no reason at all. And the Western press are no better than publicists for the Palestinian's staged production: the WaPo probably edited AP's original caption knowing no reader would believe that Uzi -- made in Israel -- a toy.



3. "Mourning" with a machine gun? What kind of people grieve by lining up tomorrow's live-fire target practice? Especially pre-teen boys. I guess mourning means something different in the West Bank.

Conclusion: Kudos to Ahmed's parents for a genuinely noble decision. But their 12 year-old son would still be alive if he hadn't flocked, locked and loaded, to the front lines--a role model for martyrdom by the cousin now cradling Ahmed's gun tomorrow.