---
born: 1918-10-10
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
died: 1980-02-29
location: Kfar Tavor, British Mandate Palestine
summary: Yigal Allon was a 1948 war hero and a close adviser to Prime Minister Levi
  Eshkol.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

Yigal Allon was a 1948 war hero and a close adviser to Prime Minister [Levi Eshkol](/people/levi-eshkol/). He was an advocate of [West Bank](/places/west-bank/) resettlement. Allon, along with [Yitzhak Rabin](/people/yitzhak-rabin/) and [Ariel Sharon](/people/ariel-sharon/), believed that [Israel](/places/israel/)'s essential advantage over the Arabs was the quality and training of its military personnel, and viewed nuclear weapons as nothing more than a great equalizer.[^1]

In early December 1967, Allon was given a private look at [Israel](/places/israel/)'s early work on its first nuclear missile field, under construction at Hirbat Zachariah. This experience moved him to tears, as he saw it as a new kind of military security for the nation. He couldn't resist boasting about what he had seen, stunning his cabinet colleagues by warning [Egypt](/places/egypt/) in a public speech that [Israel](/places/israel/) would reply in kind to any Egyptian attack on a population center using advanced weapons. His cryptic assertions were privately attacked by other government officials as a breach of security and publicly criticized in the press for creating panic.[^1]

Allon was among those in the kitchen cabinet who assembled for an all-night session in [Golda Meir](/people/golda-meir/)'s office in [Tel Aviv](/places/tel-aviv/) on Monday, October 8, 1973, during the [Yom Kippur War](/events/yom-kippur-war/). The Israeli leadership resolved to implement three critical decisions: rally its collapsing forces for a major counterattack; arm and target its nuclear arsenal in the event of total collapse and subsequent need for the [Samson Option](/concepts/samson-option/); and inform [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/) of its unprecedented nuclear action to demand an emergency airlift of replacement arms and ammunition.[^2]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9, 13.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.