# The Samson Option > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The Samson Option," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-samson-option/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's assessment, given during the 2026 Iran war, that Israel would use nuclear weapons if it believed the state itself was about to collapse. He notes that a year earlier he would have called the idea ridiculous, and that analysts put the Israeli arsenal at between eighty and two hundred warheads.* - **What it is:** Nuclear use as a last resort if the state is judged untenable - **Kiriakou's verdict:** "Yes, I think they would use the Samson option" - **A year earlier:** He would have called it a doom ideology and ridiculous - **Arsenal, per analysts:** Between 80 and 200 warheads - **Israeli position:** Has never acknowledged the programme or the arsenal - **What does not trigger it:** A conventional beating, he says Israel would not go nuclear over a Turkish clash - **On an economic version:** Rejected, Israel *"doesn't give a [ __ ] about international oil prices"* - **If it happened:** Doubts the world would do more than issue statements **The Samson Option** is the doctrine of last-resort Israeli nuclear use, and the subject of an assessment [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) gave during the [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war) when asked how plausible it was that Israel would resort to nuclear weapons if it were losing. His condition is the survival of the state rather than the outcome of any particular war. If the Israelis believed *"that the state of Israel was untenable"*, that Arab or Iranian advances *"could lead eventually even to the end of the state of Israel"*, then *"yes, I think they would use the Samson option."*[1] What he stresses is that this is a changed position. *"I gave an interview yesterday in which I said that even a year ago, I would have said that was ridiculous. It was a doom ideology."*[2] His current answer is unhedged: *"I believe the Israelis would carry this out if they really believed they were in threat of collapse. Yes, they would take everybody out with them."*[2] Pressed on it again in the same period, he put the point as a rule about listening rather than a prediction: *"I think that when the Israelis tell us that there's a Samson option, that we should take them at their word. I I could absolutely see the Israelis going nuclear. Yes."*[3] ## What does not trigger it The condition is narrow, and Kiriakou has twice declined to extend it. Asked during the same weeks about a possible Israeli clash with Turkey, he reported putting the question to two interlocutors who *"both looked at each other and they both started smiling"* before telling him there would be no hostilities, and that if the Israelis were to attack Turkey, *"Turkey would destroy them."*[4] Asked directly whether Israel would then pull the Samson option, his answer was that it would not: Turkey has no interest whatsoever in occupying Israel, and its aim would be *"just to bloody Israel's, you know, face and nose and tell them you stay on your side of the border and we'll stay on ours."*[5] A beating is not an existential threat, and the doctrine does not reach it. He also rejected an economic reading of the doctrine. Put to him was the suggestion that the Israeli strike on Iran's South Pars field, the world's largest natural gas deposit, shared with Qatar, of which only some facilities caught fire, was a non-nuclear *"Samson light"*, intended to sink the world economy alongside Israel's own.[6] Kiriakou did not think so, and his reason came from inside the agency: *"one thing I learned about the the Israelis when I was at the agency is they they don't give a [ __ ] about international oil prices. Because they buy their oil from us or they buy it on the gray market."* Israel gets oil regardless, from the United States, from the Arabs through Cyprus, through a broker, through Switzerland, so an Arab cut-off would make no difference to it, and wrecking the oil market is not a weapon it would be reaching for.[7] ## If it happened Asked what the international community would actually do in response, whether anything beyond strongly worded statements, Kiriakou called it a great question and then answered it pessimistically. One wants to think it is *"like a bright red line in the sand"*, that the entire world would come together as one, invade Israel, take its government out of commission and put it in the dock at [The Hague](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/international-criminal-court). *"But I'm not so sure."*[8] ## The arsenal Kiriakou notes that Israel *"has never acknowledged the existence of a nuclear program or nuclear arsenal,"* and gives the analytic estimate as *"between 80 and 200 warheads."* His gloss on the range is that the distinction hardly matters: *"That's enough to kill everybody. Everybody."*[9] The programme itself is treated at [the Israeli nuclear program](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-nuclear-program). ## See also - [Israeli Nuclear Program](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-nuclear-program) - [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war) - [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/benjamin-netanyahu) - [Greater Israel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greater-israel) ## Sources 1. JOHN KIRIAKOU: Israel’s “Samson Option” Is Real (2026-03-31), at 07:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvN03PMpYc&t=471s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-31-unfiltered-with-s-a-m-john-kiriakou-israel-s-samson-option-is-real/ 2. JOHN KIRIAKOU: Israel’s “Samson Option” Is Real (2026-03-31), at 08:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvN03PMpYc&t=504s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-31-unfiltered-with-s-a-m-john-kiriakou-israel-s-samson-option-is-real/ 3. With Allies Like These | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-17), at 16:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQUu9j9SzKs&t=975s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-17-deprogram-show-with-with-allies-like-these-deprogram-with-ted/ 4. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 35:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=2155s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 5. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 36:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=2187s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/ 6. Gabby Tulsi | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-19), at 18:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy42IC7br0g&t=1093s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-19-deprogram-show-with-gabby-tulsi-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and/ 7. Gabby Tulsi | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-19), at 20:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy42IC7br0g&t=1219s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-19-deprogram-show-with-gabby-tulsi-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and/ 8. Gabby Tulsi | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou (2026-03-19), at 28:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy42IC7br0g&t=1714s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-19-deprogram-show-with-gabby-tulsi-deprogram-with-ted-rall-and/ 9. JOHN KIRIAKOU: Israel’s “Samson Option” Is Real (2026-03-31), at 09:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvN03PMpYc&t=540s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-31-unfiltered-with-s-a-m-john-kiriakou-israel-s-samson-option-is-real/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-samson-option/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt