Word: buber
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...Buber Speaks...
...MARTIN BUBER Jerusalem...
Last month Buber phoned Ben-Gurion and asked permission to see him. No, the old (75) Premier told the ancient (84) philosopher, "you are older than I. I will come to see you.'' For two hours in Buber's house on Love of Zion Street, Ben-Gurion listened while Buber pleaded with him to commute the Eichmann death sentence. Society is merely a group of persons, argued Buber, and when it kills one man, it is killing part of itself. "Who gave society the right to kill itself?" he asked. "Society does not have such plenipotentiary rights...
...Eichmann's case, Buber added, execution would nurture another antichrist myth and permit a second-rate individual to symbolize the tragedy of European Jewry; his death would only offer easy, vicarious expiation to the guilty...
Last week, when newspapers learned of Buber's plea for mercy, public reaction in Israel was overwhelmingly against him. Indirectly, Ben-Gurion gave a public answer to Buber. As the Israeli Supreme Court prepared to consider Eichmann's own appeal before handing down a verdict, the official government gazette published a regulation authorizing the appointment of "a man to execute a death sentence...