My Father's House

Shirley Hirsch New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1976. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. 22 cm. 204, [4] pages. Illustrations. Footnotes. Stationary from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign affairs, handwritten thank you note for Israel Bond Program signed and dated by 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 third Knesset to the ninth inclusive. Allon joined Haganah in 1931 and went on to command a field unit 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 Bala 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. 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 Yoav towards the Hebron Hills and Operation Horev along the Southern Egyptian Front. Allon then 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. Derived from a Kirkus review: For the most part the reminiscences of the Israeli foreign minister suggest that growing up in the Galilee in the 1920s and 1930s was rather like growing up in any rural fastness prior to mechanization. A communal billy goat and ram make the children of Kefar Tavor "sensually alert" from an early age, and the exertions of a touring stallion attract the entire population--as does the weekly arrival of Masud, the peddler from Tiberias. True, the Jewish village is surrounded by a double wall, with a barbed-wire fence beyond that, and in his bar-mitzvah year Yigal is presented with a semiautomatic Browning pistol which he already knows how to use. But one would not guess from the occasional run-in with Arab raiders of the intense conflict to come. Neither can one foresee that the book will ultimately coalesce around the struggle between Allon and his towering father over the fate of the family farm. His older brothers have departed, he is his father's only hope; and he opts instead for communal farming in a kibbutz. Much later the old man, an adopted kibbutznik, salutes the kibbutzim as a sanctuary and support. The reader who stays with the book will be moved. Condition: Very good / Very good.

Keywords: Yigal Allon, Arabs, Ginosar, Israel, Jews, Kibbutzi Tabor, Palestine, Farming, Family Relationships, Mount Tabor, Kibbutz Ginosar, War of Independence, Shirley Hirsch

ISBN: 0393074986

[Book #81124]

Price: $300.00

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