The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy is a 1991 book by Seymour Hersh. It details the history of Israel's nuclear weapons program and its effects on Israel-American relations. The "Samson Option" of the book's title refers to the nuclear strategy whereby Israel would launch a massive nuclear retaliatory strike if the state itself was being overrun, just as the Biblical figure Samson is said to have pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who
Hannah (biblical figure) temple along with a sacrifice. Hannah is also considered to be a prophetess: in her song of thanksgiving () she is inspired “to discern in her own individual experience the universal laws of the divine economy, and to recognise its significance for the whole course of the Kingdom of God". This song may be compared to the Magnificat, Mary's song of thanksgiving in the New Testament (), but biblical commentator A. F. Kirkpatrick notes that "the "Magnificat" should be carefully compared with Hannah’s song, of which it is an echo rather than an imitation. The resemblance lies in thought and