Samson Option:
As Israel’s conflict with Iran escalates and threats loom from multiple regional actors, the world’s attention is once again drawn to the Samson Option—Israel’s veiled but potent nuclear deterrent.
- The Samson Option is Israel’s presumed doctrine of massive nuclear retaliation in the event of an existential threat to the state.
- The term, drawn from the biblical story of Samson, who destroyed himself along with his enemies, encapsulates the idea of apocalyptic retaliation.
- Though Israel has never officially confirmed its nuclear arsenal, a widely accepted policy of amimut (Hebrew for “deliberate ambiguity”) maintains strategic uncertainty.
- Foreign analysts estimate Israel holds between 80 to 400 nuclear warheads, deliverable via land-based missiles, aircraft, and sea-based systems.
- Like its nuclear programme, Israel has never openly spoken of its so-called “Samson Option”.
- First coined in public discourse through Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s 1991 book The Samson Option, the doctrine is not a Cold War relic but an active element of Israel’s defence strategy, hinted at over decades by former officials.
- The Samson Option is not designed to deter a nuclear adversary from a first strike or counter strike Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the region. Rather, its purported purpose is to ensure Israel’s survival.
- Under the Samson Option, nuclear weapons would be deliberately used against a non-nuclear adversary as a last resort to prevent an Israeli defeat.
