Yosef Alon
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Yosef (Joe) Alon (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: יוסף (ג'ו) אלון), born Josef Plaček, also known as Joe Alon (July 25, 1929July 1, 1973), was an
Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...
officer and military attache to the U.S. who was mysteriously shot and killed in the driveway of his home in
Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place (Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in th ...
.


Early life

Alon was born Josef Plaček on
kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
Ein Harod Ein Harod ( he, עֵין חֲרוֹד) was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz H ...
to Jewish immigrants from
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
, Siegfried 'Friedl' and Thekla Plaček. When he was two, his family returned to Czechoslovakia, where they settled in
Teplice Teplice () (until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; german: Teplitz-Schönau or ''Teplitz'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest Czech spa town, after Karlovy Vary. The his ...
, in the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
. Following the 1938
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
, which resulted in the annexation of Sudetenland to
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, Alon and his family moved to
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. On the eve of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Alon's father sent 10-year-old Josef and his elder brother David to the United Kingdom as part of the
Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
program. He was then adopted by George and Jenny Davidson, a childless Christian couple. Most of his family was wiped out during
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, with his parents being murdered at
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. Following the war, he returned to Czechoslovakia and attempted to start a career as a jeweler. He then graduated from a
vocational school A vocational school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the tasks ...
, and then enlisted in the
Czechoslovak Air Force The Czechoslovak Air Force (''Československé letectvo'') or the Czechoslovak Army Air Force (''Československé vojenské letectvo'') was the air force branch of the Czechoslovak Army formed in October 1918. The armed forces of Czechoslovakia ce ...
, where he successfully completed a pilot course. Alon married Dvora Alon (née Kirat), a Jewish immigrant from Yemen, in January 1954. They had three daughters; Dalia (born 1954), Yael (born 1959), and Rachel (born 1968).


IAF career

In 1947, he volunteered for the first pilots' course in the
Sherut Avir The Sherut Avir ( he, שרות אויר, ''Air Service'') was the air force of the Haganah and the forerunner of the Israeli Air Force. Founding The Sherut Avir was founded on 10 November 1947, just two weeks prior to the passing of the 1947 UN P ...
, the
Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
's nascent air corps. Soon afterward, he moved back to Mandate Palestine, changed his name to Yosef Alon, and upon Israeli independence in 1948, was among the founding members of the
Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...
. Alon fought in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
as a
fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...
and early member of the nascent
Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...
, and would go on to complete 75 missions. In 1953, he became one of Israel's first jet pilots. From 1953 to 1956, he flew
Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...
and
Dassault Ouragan The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan (french: Hurricane) is a French fighter-bomber developed and produced by Dassault Aviation. It has its origins in a private venture by Dassault to produce an all-French aircraft which would make use of jet propulsio ...
aircraft in the Air Force. From August 1960 to August 1961, Alon served as a Mystère IV pilot and as Commander of the 101 Squadron, which was equipped with Mystère IV aircraft. In November 1961, he returned to command 101 Squadron as the IAF's first
Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizonta ...
squadron. In 1965, after attending command and training course in England, Alon went on to head the Air Force safety industry. The highlights of his career in the IAF was the establishment of the Flying Safety branch and the
Hatzerim Airbase Hatzerim Israeli Air Force Base ( he, בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר חֲצֵרִים, ''Basis Heil HaAvir Hatzerim'') is an air base of the Israeli Air Force in the Negev Desert on the west outskirts of Beersheba, near Kibbutz Hatze ...
, which he commanded from 1966 to 1970. In 1970, then a
colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
, Alon was chosen to be the assistant
air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and naval attache at Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC. Installed in what should have been a three-year assignment, Alon advocated strongly on Israeli arms procurement, especially regarding the
F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bow ...
. He also established close relationship with the
American Jewish community American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
, assisted with the activities of the
United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Cou ...
, and gave lectures to students on Israel's cause.


Assassination

On the night of June 30, 1973, 44-year-old Yosef Alon and his wife Dvora went to a dinner party for a departing Israeli embassy staffer. At roughly 12:30 am on July 1, the couple entered their
Ford Galaxie The Ford Galaxie is a full-sized car that was built in the United States by Ford for model years 1959 through to 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford's full-size range from 1958 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the e ...
and drove home to
Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place (Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in th ...
, arriving about a half-hour later. Dvora exited the vehicle and walked 20–30 feet to their porch, while Alon gathered up his sports jacket on the back seat. At this moment, Alon was shot in his chest five times with copper-jacketed military bullets by a foreign-made
.38 caliber .38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearms and firearm cartridges. The .38 is considered a large firearm cartridge; anything larger than .32 is considered a large caliber.Wright, James D.; Rossi, Peter H.; Daly, Kathleen ...
revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
, either an F.I.E. Titan Tiger or a German
Arminius Arminius ( 18/17 BC – 21 AD) was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe who is best known for commanding an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, in which three Roman legions under the command of ge ...
. One shot that pierced his heart would soon prove to be fatal, while the other shots caused only minor wounds. Dvora rushed inside and called the police, seeing only a light-colored car drive away, and then returned to the front yard. She attempted with her 18-year-old daughter Dahlia to stem his bleeding with towels. Alon was taken to a hospital, where he died at 1:27 am.


Aftermath

Alon's family accepted President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
’s offer to repatriate Alon’s body to Israel, through an
USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
C-137 Stratoliner The Boeing C-137 Stratoliner is a retired VIP transport aircraft derived from the Boeing 707 jet airliner used by the United States Air Force. Other nations also bought both new and used 707s for military service, primarily as VIP or tanker t ...
. The aircraft left the U.S. from
Andrews Air Force Base Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force. In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form Joint B ...
in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, arriving at
Lod Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is the ...
in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, with his family onboard. Alon is buried with full military honours at
Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery Kiryat Shaul Cemetery ( he, בית העלמין קריית שאול) is a 320- dunam (32 hectares) Jewish burial ground in Northern Tel Aviv near the neighborhood of Kiryat Shaul. On the east side of the cemetery is a large military cemetery. Foun ...
.


Radio broadcast

Later on July 1, the Cairo-based
Voice of Palestine The Voice of Palestine ( ar, صوت فلسطين, Ṣawt Filasṭīn) is a radio station based in Ramallah. It is a subsidiary of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, under the control of the Palestinian Authority. The station was originally k ...
broadcast that "After the assassination of martyr Mohammed Boudia at the hands of the Zionist intelligence elements in Paris, Colonel Yosef Alon... was executed... His is the first execution operation carried out against a Zionist official in the U.S."


Investigation

The
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
investigation, "Murder of Assistant Air Attache Col. Joseph Alon" (MURDA), quickly focused on a possible link with Arab terrorism, including following leads given by the
Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...
, but was ultimately closed in March 1976 without discovering the perpetrators, according to the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
. Sometime later, the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
was reported to have been told by a "
Fedayeen Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: '' ...
senior official" that on the orders of Black September, two students, using Lebanese or Cypriot passports, had passed across the Canada–US border and come to Washington, where, with the help of a local professor, they had rented a car and got the weapons for the assassination. Afterwards, the students were reported to have abandoned the rental for another, which they used to get to
Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and Fai ...
; from there they flew on to the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
,
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
, and finally the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
. This information was passed to the FBI in February 1977, but they could make no new progress, and the investigation was closed. The following year, the collected evidence for the case was destroyed by the Baltimore office of the FBI. Dvora Alon died in 1995 without knowing the identity of her husband's killer.


Theories

In his book ''Chasing Shadows'' (Palgrave Macmillan), Fred Burton, former deputy chief of the counterterrorism division of the U.S. State Department's
Diplomatic Security Service The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS or DS) is a security and law enforcement agency that acts as the operational division of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is a branch of the United States Department of State. Its primary mission is ...
and vice-president of the private intelligence and consulting firm
Stratfor Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American geopolitics publisher and consultancy founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online public ...
, concluded after a lengthy investigation that Alon's killer was an agent from Black September who was killed by
Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...
in 2011. The documentary film ''Who Shot My Father? The Story of Joe Alon'' by Liora Amir Barmatz aired on the first Channel in Israel in April 2011. The historian
Uri Milstein Uri Milstein ( he, אורי מילשטיין; born 29 February 1940) is an Israeli historian and philosopher, specializing in military history. Biography Uri Milstein was born in Tel Aviv to Avraham Milstein, a volunteer in the British army in W ...
and Colonel Yakov Agassi presented a theory which said that Alon had been assassinated because he unwillingly learned about the conspiracy theory (the ''Kissinger plan'') for the
Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
, which involved collusion between the US, Israel, and Egypt and was designed to allow entry for the US into the region as a "savior" (and future power broker) for both Israel and Egypt by stopping the fighting after previously agreed-upon objectives had been achieved.
Ezer Weizman Ezer Weizman (; he, עֵזֶר וַיצְמָן ''Ezer Vaytsman''; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Ai ...
claimed that "Jo was killed because he knew something he should not know about." The film also claimed that
Shmuel Gonen Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen ( he, שמואל גונן; 1930 – 30 September 1991) was an Israeli general and Chief of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. Early life Born in Vilna, Poland, Gonen immigrated t ...
had said to
Adam Baruch Adam Baruch ( he, אדם ברוך; April 9, 1945 – May 24, 2008) was an Israeli journalist, newspaper Managing editor, editor, writer and art critic. Biography Baruch Meir Rosenblum (later Adam Baruch) was born in the Meah Shearim neighborhoo ...
which wrote in his book that he was killed by one of our own because he knew something he should not know about. Uri Bar Joseph has rejected the theory and the findings.


Renewed investigation

Due to a lead developed years earlier by journalist
Adam Goldman Adam Goldman is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist. He received the award for covering the New York Police Department's spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities and for his coverage of Russian meddli ...
, the FBI reopened the case in January 2017. The new investigation involves information recently given to an agent by Venezuelan terrorist
Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...
, that sometime after 1970 three American veterans sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, one of them a "prominent former
Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
," approached Mahmoud Ould Saleh, a
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
-born manager of the Arabic Bookshop on the Rue Saint Victor in the
Latin Quarter The Latin Quarter of Paris (french: Quartier latin, ) is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne. Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros ...
of Paris and member of the extremist Palestinian "rejection front" (killed in 1977.) Saleh put them in touch with suspected Black September militant Kamal Kheir Beik (later killed), known to have managed terror attacks including the 1975 OPEC siege. Every sale of the gun identified as the murder weapon, a .38-caliber revolver, that was sold east of the
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, has previously been identified by the FBI, which is now tracing the purchasers of those guns.


See also

*
Lists of unsolved murders These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances. * List of unsolved murders (before 1900) * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) * List of unsolved murders (1980–1999) * List of un ...
* List of incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Israeli Diplomat Murdered in Front of Bethesda HomeUnsolved mystery: Who shot Israeli military attache Joseph Alon outside home in D.C. suburb?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alon, Yosef 1929 births 1973 deaths 1973 murders in the United States 20th-century diplomats 20th-century Israeli military personnel Assassinated Israeli diplomats Assassinated Jews Assassinated military personnel Deaths by firearm in Maryland Israeli Air Force personnel Israeli expatriates in the United States 20th-century Israeli Jews Israeli murder victims Israeli people of Czech-Jewish descent Air attachés Murders of IDF soldiers Unsolved murders in the United States Israeli people murdered abroad People murdered in Maryland Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery