Samson Option

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The Samson Option is a term used to describe the strategies alleged to underlie Israel's development of a nuclear arsenal. It is most often described as "Israel's option of last resort." The term was used by American journalist Seymour Hersh in his bestselling book, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. The strategy can be considered an Israel-specific variant of mutually assured destruction, and is named after the Biblical figure Samson, who is said to have pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had gathered to see him humiliated.

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[edit] Doctrine

In addition to the “Samson Option” of last resort, other triggers for nuclear weapons use may include [1]

  • Successful Arab penetration of populated areas
  • Destruction of the Israeli Air Force
  • Massive air strikes or chemical/biological strikes on Israeli cities
  • Arab use of nuclear weapons

In short, due to Israel's concentrated population and strategic vulnerability, a violation of any of the above could be seen as an imminent threat to the continued existence of the state, thereby triggering an Israeli nuclear response.

[edit] Other speculated reasons for Israeli development of Nuclear Weapons

One list of current reasons for an Israeli nuclear capability is: [2][3]

  • To deter a large conventional attack,
  • To deter all levels of unconventional (chemical, biological, nuclear) attacks,
  • To preempt enemy nuclear attacks,
  • To support conventional preemption against enemy nuclear assets,
  • To support conventional preemption against enemy non-nuclear (conventional, chemical, biological) assets,
  • For nuclear warfighting,
  • The “Samson Option” (last resort destruction)

The inscription "Never Again!" is believed to have been welded onto the first Israeli nuclear bomb. [4][5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS, Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army, The Counterproliferation Papers, Future Warfare Series No. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center]
  2. ^ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS, Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army, The Counterproliferation Papers, Future Warfare Series No. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center]
  3. ^ Beres, Louis Rene, “Israel's Bomb in the Basement: A revisiting of `Deliberate Ambiguity' vs. `Disclosure', Between War and Peace: Dilemmas of Israeli Security, edited by Efraim Harsh (London, England: Frank Cass, 1996), 113-133.
  4. ^ Quoted in Hersh, op. cit., 180 and Stevens, op. cit., 1-14
  5. ^ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS, Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army, The Counterproliferation Papers, Future Warfare Series No. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center]

[edit] External Links

[http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm|THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS]

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