ALLON (Paicovitch), YIGAL

ALLON (Paicovitch ), YIGAL (1918–1980), Israeli statesman and military commander; member of the Third to Ninth Knessets. Allon was born in Mesha, which later changed its name to *Kefar Tavor, in the Lower Galilee. His father, Reuven Yosef Paicovitch, a member of Hovevei Zion in Grodno, Russia, had settled in Eretz Israel in 1882. Allon received his elementary schooling in his native village and graduated in 1937 from the Kadoorie Agricultural High School. In that year he became one of the founders of Kibbutz *Ginnosar, where he was to reside for the rest of his life.

As a boy Allon joined the *Haganah, and in 1936, at the age of 18, became a member of the newly created special units (peluggot sadeh) under Yiẓḥak *Sadeh, rapidly rising to officer rank. In 1941 Allon was among the founders of the *Palmaḥ, and in this capacity he fought with the British forces in Syria and Lebanon in the years 1941–42. In 1943 he became the deputy commander of the Palmaḥ, and after Sadeh became acting chief of staff of the Haganah in 1945, he replaced him as its commander. In this capacity he was responsible for planning the Palmaḥ's multifaceted training program, operations against Arab bands, and attacks on civilian and military installations of the British Administration during the last years of its presence in Palestine. He also played a major role in smuggling immigrants illegally into the country (Aliyah Bet), and establishing settlements in prohibited zones. During the *War of Independence Allon commanded in decisive battles for the liberation of the Upper Galilee and Safed in the north; Lydda, Ramleh, and the Jerusalem Corridor in the center of the country; and the Southern Coastal Plain and the Negev, including Beersheba and Eilat, in the south. He also commanded the forces that entered deep into Sinai, as far as El-Arish, but was ordered by David *Ben-Gurion, who was under American pressure, to withdraw. Ben-Gurion also blocked his plans to capture the West Bank from King Abdullah's Arab Legion, even though Allon believed he could accomplish the mission within three weeks.

In 1950, following the dissolution of the Palmaḥ on Ben-Gurion's orders, Allon left active military service, but in the eyes of many remained a war hero whose military career had wrongfully been cut short. Allon then entered active politics, joining the leadership of the Kibbutz Hame'uḥad kibbutz movement, and *Mapam within the framework of his own movement. However, he objected to Mapam's pro-Soviet leanings and supported the decision of his movement's four mks in Mapam to break away from the combined parliamentary group in the summer of 1954. Allon then joined the leadership of the reinstated *Aḥdut ha-Avodah-Po'alei Zion. In 1955 he was elected to the Third Knesset, and was to serve in all the Knessets until his death in February 1980. He resigned from the Fourth Knesset in October 1960 in order to pursue his studies at Oxford but was forced to cut short his stay in Great Britain because of early elections for the Fifth Knesset. Nevertheless, during his stay in Oxford, Allon met many of the leaders of the British Labour Party, several of whom became his personal friends.

From 1961 to 1968 Allon served as minister of labor, in which capacity he promoted the improvement of the staterun employment service and manpower training, initiated extensive road works, and introduced new legislation on labor relations, including laws regulating strikes and lockouts and the establishment of labor courts. During his term of office, social insurance was extended. During the crisis leading up to the 1967 *Six-Day War, when Prime Minister Levi *Eshkol was advised to appoint a minister of defense in order to soothe the public, Eshkol preferred Allon, but due to Allon's absence abroad in the critical days, and pressure from other quarters, it was Moshe *Dayan, Allon's long-time rival from the days of the Palmaḥ, who was appointed. Eshkol compensated him by appointing him deputy prime minister and minister for immigrant absorption.

Allon had strongly supported the establishment of the Alignment between *Mapai and Aḥdut ha-Avodah in 1965, and in 1968 supported the union of Mapai, Aḥdut ha-Avodah, and *Rafi to form the *Israel Labor Party. Following the Six-Day War he developed a plan for a permanent settlement of the Palestinian problem, which came to be known as the "Allon Plan." The plan, which sought to maximize Israel's security while minimizing the number of Palestinians who would remain under Israeli rule, proposed that most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip be handed over to Jordan, which would turn into a Jordanian-Palestinian state. Israel would remain in united Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley (except for a corridor connecting the Kingdom of Jordan with the West Bank around Jericho), the first mountain ridge west of the Jordan River, *Gush Etzyon, and the Latrun area. The Allon Plan was never adopted by the Government, but until 1977 most of the Jewish settlements in the territories were established within its parameters. Following the elections to the Seventh Knesset, held in 1969 under Golda *Meir's leadership, Allon was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture, and he was given the same positions in the government that Meir formed after the election of the Eighth Knesset on December 31, 1973. After Meir's resignation, following the publication of the Interim Report of the Agranat Commission on the outbreak of the *Yom Kippur War, Yitzhak *Rabin, who was elected by the Labor Party as its new chairman and its candidate for prime minister, appointed Allon deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, in which post he replaced Abba *Eban, who was not included in the new government. As foreign minister Allon was a member of the negotiating team that held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Henry *Kissinger on the Disengagement Agreements with Egypt and Syria in 1974, and the Interim Agreement with Egypt in 1975. In 1974 he also tried to promote his "Jericho Plan," under which Israel would hand over Jericho and an area around it to King Hussein of Jordan, as a first step towards implementing the Allon Plan, but the results of the Rabat Arab Summit Conference foiled his plans.

Serving under Yitzhak Rabin, who had been his subordinate in the Palmaḥ and five years his junior, was not easy for Allon, but the relations between the two remained friendly. Following the 1977 election upset that brought *Menaḥem Begin to power, he remained a member of the Knesset, and was appointed chairman of the World Labor Zionist Organization. Among the issues that Allon promoted in the Knesset was the Mediterranean-Dead Sea canal for the generation of electricity. In the vote on the Camp David Accords with Egypt of September 1978, Allon abstained for ideological reasons. Allon also supported the creation of a united kibbutz movement, in order to better confront the economic difficulties that the kibbutzim faced following the 1977 elections.

In the books he wrote between 1948 and 1967 Allon developed a defense doctrine, which included the concept of "anticipatory initiative." He wrote "The Making of the Israeli Army," in M. Howard, Theory and Practice of War (1965), 335–7, and his books include Ma'arekhot Palmaḥ ("Palmaḥ Campaigns," 1966), Masakh shel Ḥol ("Curtain of Sand," 1968), Shield of David (1970), and My Father's House (1976).

Even after his premature death, differences of opinion remained as to whether Yigal Allon had been deliberately denied his rightful place as leader of the Israel Labor Party, or whether he had lost something of his charisma and qualities of leadership after ending his military career. In the late 1970s British Labour Party leader Harold Wilson said of Allon that he would never assume the leadership of his party, since he was "incapable of going for the kill." Friends and foes alike, however, never denied his humanity and charm.

bibliography:

Sefer ha-Palmaḥ ("The Book of the Palmah"), Z. Gilad and M. Meged, eds., 2 vols. (1953), index; Y. Cohen, Toḥnit Allon (1972); A. Busheiri, Tefisat ha-Bitaḥon shel Yigal Allon el Mul Tefisato shel Ben-Gurion (2003); A. Shapira, Yigal Allon: Aviv Kheldo (2004).

[Susan Hattis Rolef (2^nd ed.)]