Yigal Allon, Native Son
JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania
David B. Ruderman, Series Editor
Advisory Board
Richard I. Cohen
Moshe Idel
Alan Mintz
Deborah Dash Moore
Ada Rapoport-Albert
Michael D. Swartz
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Yigal Allon, Native Son
A Biography
ANITA SHAPIRA
Translated by Evelyn Abel
PENN
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
The publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation.
Copyright © 2008 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104–4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A Cataloging-in-Publication record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-4028-3
ISBN-10: 0-8122-4028-6
Contents
2. Kadoorie Agricultural School
5. British-Jewish “Cooperation”
8. Countdown to Statehood and the Onset of War
10. Commanding Officer of the Southern Front
Abbreviations
| AHC | Arab Higher Committee |
| BGA | Ben-Gurion Archive |
| BGD | Ben-Gurion’s Diaries |
| BGWD | Ben-Gurion’s War Diary |
| BZI | Ben-Zvi Institute |
| CGS | Chief of General Staff |
| CZA | Central Zionist Archives |
| GAR | Ginossar Archives |
| GHA | Givat Haviva Archives |
| HA | Haganah Archive |
| HGS | Haganah General Staff; after 15 May 1948, Israel Defense Forces High General Staff |
| HNHO | Ha-Noar Ha-Oved |
| HSHT | Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza’ir |
| ICA | Jewish Colonization Association |
| IDF | Israel Defense Forces |
| IDFA | Israel Defense Forces Archive |
| IZL | Revisionist National Military Organization |
| JA | Jewish Agency |
| JA-PD | Jewish Agency’s Political Department |
| JSP | Jewish Settlement Police |
| KA | Kadoorie Archive |
| KM | Kibbutz Me’uhad movement |
| KMA | Kibbutz Me’uhad Archive |
| KMC | Kibbutz Me’uhad Council |
| KMP | Kibbutz Me’uhad Publishing House |
| KTA | Kefar Tavor Archive |
| LA | Labor Archive |
| LAHA | Le-Ahdut Ha-Avodah |
| LA-HE | Labor Archive, Histadrut Executive |
| LA-LI | Labor Archive, Lavon Institute |
| LeHI | Lohamei Herut Israel (Israel Freedom Fighters) or the Stern Gang |
| LPA | Labor Party Archive |
| LPA-BB | Labor Party Archive, Bet Berl |
| PICA | Palestine Jewish Colonization Association |
| S.N.S | Special Night Squads (Wingate’s) |
| SHAY | Haganah Intelligence Service |
| UNSCOP | United Nations Special Committee on Palestine |
| UNRRA | United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration |
Preface
Last Rites
Yigal Allon was the man and mark of a generation: the generation bred in Eretz Israel during the struggle for Jewish statehood. This book is dedicated to him and his era, when he and his peers in the elite Palmah fashioned the country’s first youth culture, setting the tone for those who came after.
“Palmahniks” were neither highbrow nor cultivated but a young brigade of daring volunteers. Apart from a handful of writers and poets who sprang up from within, most had little use for the trappings of culture or social graces. And yet their defining experience, which was to stay with them throughout their lives, became the cultural inspiration of the young. The type of person spawned by the Palmah was not without fault. There was about them a callow rawness, an upstart’s brashness, the shallowness of men of action, the intolerance of the self-absorbed. They judged both themselves and others mercilessly, knowing no compassion. Yet they were also capable of openness and high-flying idealism, extraordinary acts of friendship and comradeship, reticence and loftiness, humility and dedication. They had a measure of pride that in their youth took the form of arrogance and over the years was widely translated into independence and self-sufficiency, a personal autonomy, so to speak. Many of the Palmah veterans flowed with the times, changed their lifestyles, forgot the ideals of their youth. All, however, retained that core sense of belonging and fellowship formed on those heady, faraway nights of campfires, coffee, and song. Those who