Final_Judgment

[622] Final Judgment 720
Zionism: to advance the State of Israel spiritually and
materially, and to provide for a better defense against its
external enemies . . ."
Ben-Gurion's determination to launch a nuclear
project was the result of strategic intuition and
obsessive fears, not of a well-thought out plan. He
believed Israel needed nuclear weapons as insurance if it
could no longer compete with the Arabs in an arms race,
and as a weapon of last resort in case of an extreme
military emergency. Nuclear weapons might also
persuade the Arabs to accept Israel's existence, leading to
peace in the region.
On 27 June 1963, eleven days after he announced his
resignation, Ben-Gurion delivered a farewell address
to the employees of the Arma ments Development
Authority in which, without referring to nuclear weapons,
he provided the justification for the nuclear project:
"I do not know of any other nation whose
neighbors declare that they wish to terminate it, and not
only declare, but prepare for it by all means available
to them. We must have no illusions that what is declared
every day in Cairo, Damascus, Iraq are just words. This
is the thought that guides the Arab leaders . . . I am
confident . . . that science is able to provide us with the
weapon that will secure the peace, and deter our
enemies."
To summarize this very long quotation: The "nuclear option" was not only
at the very core of Ben-Gurion's personal world view, but the very foundation
of Israel's national security policy. The Israelis were essentially willing, if
necessary, to "blow up the world"—including themselves—if they had to do
so in order to destroy the Arab neighbors they hate so much.
This is what Seymour Hersh notes Israeli nuclear planners considered "the
Samson Option"—that, as Samson of the Bible, after being captured by the
Philistines, brought down Dagon's Temple in Gaza and killed himself along
with his enemies. As Hersh put it, on page 137 in his book, "For Israel's
nuclear advocates, the Samson Option became another way of saying
'Never again," (in reference to preventing another Holocaust).
So along came the STDL librarians who wanted to debate whether
JFK's pressure on Israel over nuclear weapons was "the" primary reason or
"a" primary reason or "one" (of several) reasons for Ben-Gurion's
resignation. They were suggesting that I quoted Hersh out of context (and
did so deliberately) because they realized, full well, that all of the evidence,
taken together in the big picture, clearly demonstrates that it was indeed
JFK's determined effort to defuse "The Samson Option" that was very
much so the primary cause of Ben-Gurion's resignation.