I've just read here that David Grossman's son, Uri, was killed in the fighting in Lebanon. The irony of it. I was just reading somewhere else about Zionists and what very bad people they are. From one of those whose semblance of decency and integrity Grossman tries to maintain in his eloquent and honest dissent. The contrast is explicit. Even though I rarely agree with Grossman's view of politics in Israel, I hope, I am sure, his voice will not get more quiet as a result of this personal nightmare come true that has befallen him. His positions, as well as his ultimate sacrifice, represent Israel at its acutest anguish, on every level imaginable.

I cannot find words to express the horror of losing a child. Or to comfort a berieved parent. I can only cry for him. And that's hardly helpful.

Staff Sergeant. Uri Grossman, 20, of Mevasseret Zion

Staff Sergeant. Uri Grossman, 20, was killed by an anti-tank missile in a major ground offensive in southern Lebanon on Saturday.He was the son of David Grossman, a renowned novelist and peace activist in Israel, and he was killed just three days after the author publicly urged the government to end the war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Grossman's appeal to the government on Thursday came a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet approved the plan for the new offensive.


BARREN

If only I had a son, a little child, bright, with black curls,
To hold his hand and to walk slowly,
Down the paths of the garden,
A child.
A little one.

I would call him Uri, my Uri,
The short name is soft and pure,
A fragment of brightness,
I'll call out to my dark little boy,"Uri."

I will yet become as bitter as the mother Rachel.
I will still pray like Hannah at Shilo.
I will yet long
For him.

Hebrew Poet Rachel (Bluwstein), 1928