"Mr. Stone"

Last winter a chunky, cheerful man toured Palestine in an open convertible. He looked at the limestone hills and green settlements with a soldier's eye. This hilltop, he would say, should be fortified; that gully would be ideal for a withdrawal if necessary. To strangers he was introduced as "Mr. Stone." His real name was David ("Mickey") Marcus, late of West Point, New York City and the U.S. Army.

Forty-seven-year-old Mickey Marcus had done well as soldier and lawyer. After the military academy and a spell with the regulars, he studied law, became a gang-busting assistant U.S. district attorney in Manhattan, later commissioner of correction in charge of New York City prisons.

In World War II, Marcus went back to the Army, won the Distinguished Service Medal for staff work. He was one of the first Americans to get a look at Dachau, where the Nazis had slaughtered thousands of his fellow Jews. Said he: "It made me fiercely interested in a Jewish state . . . where the Jews would not be a minority . . ."

Last January Marcus was back in his law practice when Haganah asked him to help build an efficient Jewish army. Marcus consented. As chief planner he won the confidence of Palestine Jews by suggesting "we ought . . ." instead of "you must . . ." In April, he returned briefly to the U.S. on what he regarded as an ironic mission: to receive from the hand of British Ambassador Lord Inverchapel a decoration as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his work in World War II. Then he went back to Palestine.

Last week, as commander of Israeli forces trying to open the road to Jerusalem, Marcus was in the hills west of the town. There, a few minutes before the U.N. truce went into effect, an Arab bullet killed him. His body was brought back to Tel Aviv by jeep, to be sent to West Point for burial. Said Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion: "His name will live forever in the annals of the Jewish people . . ."

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