Samson Option

The Samson Option (Hebrew: ברירת שמשון, b'rerat shimshon) is Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.^[1] Commentators also have employed the term to refer to situations where non-nuclear, non-Israeli actors have threatened conventional weapons retaliation, such as Yasser Arafat.^[2]

For the 1991 book, see The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.

The name is a reference to the biblical Israelite judge Samson who pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had captured him.^[3]^[4]

Dahiya doctrine

Israel and weapons of mass destruction

Massive retaliation

Mutual assured destruction

No first use

Nuclear weapons and Israel

Pre-emptive nuclear strike

Preventive war

Project Daniel

Cohen, Avner (1998), Israel and the Bomb, Columbia University Press.

Hersh, Seymour (1991), The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, Random House.

Rosenbaum, Ron (2012), How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III, , ISBN 978-1-4165-9422-2.

Simon & Schuster

Israel and Samson. Biblical Insights on Israeli Strategy in the Nuclear Age Archived 2008-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, JerusalemSummit.Org.

Louis René Beres

Ross Dunn, , Scotsman.Com news, November 3, 2002.

Sharon eyes 'Samson option' against Iraq

Ross Dunn, , Sydney Morning Herald, September 20, 2002.

In war, Israel retains the Samson option

The War Game, a controversial view of the current crisis in the Middle East, The Observer Guardian, September 21, 2003.

David Hirst

"Strategic Doctrine", , Federation of American Scientists.