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
Archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple Archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple Several kinds of archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple exist, both for the Temple that stood before the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonia in 586 BCE, and for the rebuilt Temple that stood until destruction by Rome in the year 70. The term First Temple is customarily used to describe the Temple of the Biblical period, which is thought to have been destroyed by the Babylonian conquest. It is described in the Bible as having been built by King Solomon, and is understood to have been constructed with its Holy of Holies centered on