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
Shiloh (biblical city) Philistines also destroyed Shiloh at this time; this conclusion is disputed, but supported by traditional commentary. The place may have been destroyed later as well, and the biblical text records no such claimed destruction. Certainly, the shadowy figure of Ahijah the Shilonite, who instigated the revolt of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, against David's grandson Rehoboam (I Kings 11, 14), came from there, and he bore the same name as the Aaronite priest that consulted the Ark for Saul in I Samuel 14:3. Schley has claimed that the capture of the Ark and the death of Saul occurred in the