Alon, born in 1918 in Kfar Tabor, begins his career in the Haganah, eventually commanding the Palmach from 1945-1948. Likewise an accomplished Israeli politician, he is elected to the Knesset in 1954, where he remaines as a parliament member until his death in 1980. Serving as minister of labor, immigrant absorption, culture and foreign affairs, deputy prime minister, and for a three week period in 1969, as interim prime minister. The Alon plan envisages Israeli retention of a series of settlements and military installations along the Jordan Valley, as buffers to a potential Arab land attack from the east. (source)