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The vast majority of Israelis say they are not troubled by reports of famine and suffering in Gaza, a new poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute shows.

The survey shows that 79 percent of Jews in Israel were not troubled, or troubled at all, whereas 86 percent of “Arab” respondents were somewhat or very troubled by the reports about the war on Gaza.

The survey was conducted between 27-31 July.

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

I would interpret that paragraph as a threat to nuke Arab countries (13 times, maybe), which would be bad, and would also have major political and economic fallout for Nixon. Threatening the use of nukes against a non-nuclear country is questionable, but I think it's also the US policy if invaded.

I had assumed it was just called that for the Jewishness. The story of Samson is pretty MAD-ish, except that I don't think his captors were warned - killing a bunch of Philistines was the point, because it was the bad old days.

Come to think of it, did/do they even have a way of delivering nukes outside the region?

[-] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Here's another article which contains more quotes from the same book Wikipedia cites:

This doctrine is still in place today, as journalist Kit Klarenberg noted, “Dutch-born Israeli military theorist Martin van Creveld boasted in September 2003” that “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets…We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under”.

https://the307.substack.com/p/the-samson-option-how-israel-not

Edit regarding your question: Yes, Isreal has multiple delivery options.

Officials confirm that the nation can now launch atomic weapons from land, sea and air.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 21 hours ago

Hmm, a bit of a suspect source. And I can't find the primary source of this quote.

It does look like some of their boats and ships have global range, at least. If the Martin van Creveld quote is authentic, that would imply Rome is the edge of their missile range, which would make sense. I'm guessing Iran is just about as far.

[-] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

They absolutely have the capability. Even without their many aircraft capable of carrying nuclear bombs and fleet of nuclear-missile-carrying submarines, their Jericho III missiles have a range of 11,500 km. From that wiki page:

According to an official report that was submitted to the U.S. Congress in 2004, it may be that with a payload of 1,000 kg the Jericho III gives Israel nuclear strike capabilities within the entire Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and almost all parts of North America, as well as large parts of South America and North Oceania.

Regarding the Martin van Creveld quote, check this out.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 20 hours ago

That one is in the Wikipedia article as well, and is sourced. I can't find him talking about nuking Europe anywhere else.

It honestly doesn't pass the sniff test, either. Nobody likes being threatened, and Israel is heavily dependent on the goodwill of the West (or just the US, now that it's split off). It's way too easy just to bandy around regional chaos and then play as nice and holy as possible with us.

[-] AlDente@sh.itjust.works 1 points 20 hours ago

I only put a portion of the quote in the search text to not exclude variations in punctuation between sentences. I wasn't pointing to the string of characters in the search bar, but the results it yielded. The full quote is in the search results, including the threat on European capitals.

I'm not sure how you can continue to say this policy doesn't pass the sniff test. The only context in which I have heard Samson option discussed is in regards to Israel taking out everyone with them. There's been literally books written on the subject, showing Israel's intent and capability (see the sources in the Samson option wiki page for the books).

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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