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.