Yigal Allon Yigal Allon ( , 10 October 1918 – 29 February 1980 ) was an Israeli politician , a commander of the Palmach , and a general in the IDF . He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party , and acting Prime Minister of Israel . He was a Knesset member and government minister from the 10th through the 17th Knesset . Biography . Yigal Peikowitz ( later Allon ) was born in Kfar Tavor . His father immigrated to Palestine in 1890 . After graduating from Kadoorie Agricultural High School in 1937 , Allon became one of the founders of Kibbutz Ginosar . Allon was married to Ruth . Their eldest daughter , Nirit , was mentally retarded . In 1950 - 1952 , he studied philosophy and history at St Antony ' s College , Oxford . Allon died of heart failure in Afula on 29 February 1980 . He was buried on the shore of Lake Kinneret in the cemetery of Kibbutz Ginosar . The funeral was attended by tens of thousands of mourners , with condolences extended by many world leaders , including Egyptian president Anwar Sadat . Military career . Allon commanded a field unit of the Haganah and then a mobile patrol in northern Palestine during the 1936 – 1939 Arab revolt in Palestine . During this period he participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads ( SNS ) , under the command of Orde Charles Wingate and H . E . N . Bredin . In 1941 he became one of the founding members of the Palmach . In 1941 and 1942 , he was a scout with the British forces who fought in Syria and Lebanon . In 1945 , he became Commander in Chief of the Palmach . As a Palmach commander , Yigal Allon approved the 18 December 1947 attack on the village of al Khisas near the Lebanese border , in which houses were blown up and a dozen civilians were killed . On 11 June 1948 , at the climax of David Ben - Gurion ' s confrontation with the Irgun over the distribution of weapons from the " Altalena " , Allon commanded the troops ordered to shell the vessel . During the 1948 Arab – Israeli War , Allon led several of the major operations on all three fronts , including Yiftach in the Galilee , Danny in the Centre , Yoav , and Horev in the Negev . His last major military roles as commander were in October and December 1948 : Operation Operation Yoav towards the Hebron Hills and Operation Horev along the Southern Egyptian Front . As Operational Commander of the Southern Command he was responsible for security along the borders with Egypt and parts of Jordan . On 4 June 1949 he declared a wide closed military zone along the border . On 25 October 1949 , while he was out of the country , Allon was replaced as OC Southern Command by Moshe Dayan . Most of his Staff Officers resigned in protest . He retired from active service in 1950 . Political career . After ending his military career , Allon embarked on a political career . He became a prominent leader in Ahdut HaAvoda , and was first elected to the Knesset in 1955 , where he served until his death . He was a member of the Economic Affairs Committee , Constitution , Law and Justice Committee , Education and Culture Committee , Joint Committee on the Motion for the Agenda Regarding Sports in Israel , and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee . Allon served as the Minister of Labour from 1961 – 67 . In this role he worked to improve the state employment service , extend the road network , and fought to get legislation on labor relations passed . From 1967 – 69 he served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Immigrant Absorption . Allon served briefly as interim Prime Minister following the death of Levi Eshkol on 26 February 1969 . He held office until 17 March 1969 , when Golda Meir took over after being appointed leader of the Labor Party . He became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Culture in Meir ' s government , and served in that post until 1974 . During the September 1970 crisis in Jordan he advocated supporting King Hussein in his conflict with the PLO . In 1974 he was a part of the delegation to the Separation of Forces Agreement . He became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1974 , and held this post until 1977 . At the time of his sudden death in 1980 , he was a candidate for the leadership of the Alignment , challenging the incumbent party head Shimon Peres . Allon was the architect of the Allon Plan , a proposal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank with a negotiated partition of territories . The plan was presented to the cabinet in July 1967 , right after the Six Day War . According to the plan , Israel would retain one - third of the West Bank and protect itself from invasion from the east by a strip of settlements and military installations along the Jordan Valley . The mountain ridge west of this strip , which was populated by Arabs , would be confederated with Jordan . A strip of land flanking the Jericho - Jerusalem road , Gush Etzion and a large part of the Hebron Hills area , would be annexed . Minor territorial changes would be made along the Green Line , specifically in the area of Latrun . Allon also called for the development of Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem , the rehabilitation of the Old City ' s Jewish Quarter , and the annexation of Gaza , whose Arab inhabitants would be resettled elsewhere . Commemoration . In 2005 , he was voted the 65th - greatest Israeli of all time , in a poll by the Israeli news website " Ynet " to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis . Explaining the growing admiration for Yigal Allon three decades after his death , Oren Dagan of the Society for the Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites said , " people wish to live in the kind of state Yigal Allon dreamed of , for example on the Arab - Jewish issue . This isn ' t a post - Zionist approach , neither hesitant nor apologetic . It ' s an approach of safety and security that says , ' Our place is here , ' but still emphasizes the importance of dialogue , and never through condescension or arrogance . Allon extended a hand in peace , and that ' s the approach we want leaders to adopt today . "