https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

[Mark Kohut]

The original conception of the Samson Option was only as deterrence.
According to United States <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States>
journalist Seymour Hersh <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh> and
Israeli historian Avner Cohen <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avner_Cohen>,
Israeli leaders like David Ben-Gurion
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion>, Shimon Peres
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres>, Levi Eshkol
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol> and Moshe Dayan
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Dayan> coined the phrase in the
mid-1960s. They named it after the biblical
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible> figure Samson
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson>, who pushed apart the pillars of a
Philistine <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistines> temple, bringing
down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had
captured him, mutilated him, and gathered to see him further humiliated in
chains as retribution for his massacres of their people.[17]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-17>[18]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-18>[19]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-19> They contrasted
it with ancient siege of Masada <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada> where
936 Jewish Sicarii <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicarii> committed mass
suicide <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_suicide> rather than be
defeated and enslaved by the Romans
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire>.[20]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHersh1991136%E2%80%937-20>
[21]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-FOOTNOTECohen1998236%E2%80%93237-21>

In what they called the "Last Secret of the Six-Day War" the *New York
Times <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times>* reported that in the
days before the 1967 Six-Day War <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War>
 Israel planned to insert a team of paratroopers by helicopter into the
Sinai <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinai_Peninsula>. Their mission was to
set up and remote detonate a nuclear bomb on a mountaintop as a warning to
belligerent surrounding states. The greatly outnumbered Jewish state in a
surprising turn of events effectively eliminated the Egyptian Air Force
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Air_Force> and occupied the Sinai
winning the war before the test could even be set up. Retired Israeli
brigadier general Itzhak Yaakov referred to this operation as the Israeli
Samson Option.[22]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-22>

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War>,
Arab forces were overwhelming Israeli forces and Prime Minister Golda Meir
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golda_Meir> authorized a nuclear alert and
ordered 13 atomic bombs be readied for use by missiles and aircraft. The
Israeli Ambassador warned President Nixon of "very serious conclusions" if
the United States did not airlift supplies. Nixon complied. This is seen by
some commentators on the subject as the first threat of the use of the
Samson Option.[23]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHersh1991225%E2%80%937-23>
[24]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-FOOTNOTECohen1998236-24>
[25] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-25>[26]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-26>[27]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-27>

Seymour Hersh writes that the "surprising victory of Menachem Begin
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin>'s Likud Party
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likud_Party> in the May 1977 national
elections ... brought to power a government that was even more committed
than Labor to the Samson Option and the necessity of an Israeli nuclear
arsenal."[28]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHersh1991259-28>


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option




On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 5:04 AM Thomas Eckhardt via Pynchon-l <
pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:

> Thank you, Joseph (and Michael).
>
> PROMIS is, via Robert Maxwell, who according to Hersh was a Mossad
> agent/connection, also tied to Iran-Contra, Adnan Kashoggi and the
> Epstein saga, and via Rafi Eitan (the handler of Jonathan Pollard, who
> is also mentioned in BE) definitely to Israeli intelligence.
>
> Whitney Webb has a lot to say about this - much of it proven, some of it
> more on the speculative side. See Webb's substack or Jimmy Dore's
> interview with her.
>
> I agree with your view on how Pynchon handles these topics.
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>