Wikipedia talk:Sandbox

Definition of the Samson Option in the intro

The summary intro of the page currently describes the Samson Option as Israeli retaliation with nuclear weapons against any country attacking Israel. But the content further down the page clearly states that it's also about the idea of Israel attacking other, non-involved countries, such as European capitals. Essentially taking the rest of the world hostage. I think this should be added to the intro summary. 2A02:AA7:405A:F68A:3C64:C2E7:C558:FD9E (talk) 13:59, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

 Additional information needed The content on the page doesn't seem to support this, do you have a reliable source that makes this point? (There is an opinion suggesting Israel could try to hit Europe, but nothing verified afaict.) Smallangryplanet (talk) 10:12, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

There is a significant portion of the article dedicated to the opinions of those describing it in exactly the terms the previous contributor suggested be added to the lead, and those opinions don't come from anti-Israeli sources. I think it's reasonable to mention early on that this is a possible (or alleged) element of the strategy. 2600:4040:3114:EE00:60C5:B586:6DDE:A512 (talk) 19:33, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 30 June 2025

Description of suggested change

The current image caption misses the significance of the artist Gustave Doré's illustrations for La Grande Bible de Tours.

The current image caption and part of the introduction would work better as background.

The current background could be expanded into a section on militant suicides, there was one double suicide, originally planned as a suicide attack, that the Lehi called Operation Samson, and an identical name was then used for a nuclear deployment plan in the six day war. I'll add more on that in a second TextDiff if I get time later.

The illustrator of the Bible is mentioned in about a dozen sources about two Zionist militants who blew themselves up in prison in 1947. The illustration set were used for Bibles in a few languages, and I presume the Irgun militant's Bible didn't have the New Testament, but the sources all just say it's a Bible illustrated by Dore.

Moving some text to the background

New caption and moving existing text. I'll add more to the background in a second step so you can distinguish what is added from what was moved.

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Caption: (moved to background) According to the biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon, and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV). The Samson Option (Hebrew: ברירת שמשון, romanized: b'rerat shimshon) is Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.[1] (moved to background) Commentators also have employed the term to refer to situations where non-nuclear, non-Israeli actors have threatened conventional weapons retaliation.[2] The name is a reference to the biblical Israelite judge Samson who pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had captured him.[3][4] == Background == See also: Samson When the Lehi militant group were discussing ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing.[5][6][7] She said "Let my soul die with the Philistines [he]" as a reference to the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible.[5][6][7] Other members of the group rejected her offer.[5][7][6] == Nuclear ambiguity ==

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Caption: The Samson Option (Hebrew: ברירת שמשון, romanized: b'rerat shimshon) is Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.[1] The name is a reference to the biblical Israelite judge Samson who pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had captured him.[3][4] == Background == See also: Samson According to the biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon, and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV).(citation needed) Commentators also have employed the term to refer to situations where non-nuclear, non-Israeli actors have threatened conventional weapons retaliation.[2 jpost 2004-06-23] When the Lehi militant group were discussing ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing.[5][6][7] She said "Let my soul die with the Philistines [he]" as a reference to the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible.[5][6][7] Other members of the group rejected her offer.[5][7][6] == Nuclear ambiguity ==

Building on moved text

The militants who blew themselves up in 1947 feature in a lot of Likud party speeches, particularly by Menachem Begin. Strangely I cannot find Yitzhak Shamir ever mentioning them, but he was possibly just less prone to flamboyant speeches. The "heroic" suicide story Begin kept telling peaked as he got more powerful in national politics, so it sort of fits in the chronology of the sections below, but that might be confusing or distracting for the modern story.

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Caption: The Samson Option (Hebrew: ברירת שמשון, romanized: b'rerat shimshon) is Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.[1] The name is a reference to the biblical Israelite judge Samson who pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had captured him.[3][4] == Background == See also: Samson According to the biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon, and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV). Commentators also have employed the term to refer to situations where non-nuclear, non-Israeli actors have threatened conventional weapons retaliation.[2 jpost 2004-06-23] When the Lehi militant group were discussing ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing.[5][6][7] She said "Let my soul die with the Philistines [he]" as a reference to the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible.[5][6][7] Other members of the group rejected her offer.[5][7][6] == Nuclear ambiguity ==

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Caption: Illustration of Samson's suicide by [[Gustave Doré]], the illustrator of the Bible that was handed to the British prison guard, shortly before midnight on 21 April 1947, by an [[Irgun]] militant who blew himself up moments later.(Makor Rishon 2017)(Haaretz 29 March 2007) The Samson Option (Hebrew: ברירת שמשון, romanized: b'rerat shimshon) is Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.[1] The name is a reference to the biblical Israelite judge Samson who pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines who had captured him.[3][4] The story plays a somewhat central role in Israeli culture, alongside the [[Masada myth]]. The same Biblical references was previously used by pre state militants to refer to suicide operations.(Makor Rishon 2017)[5][6][7] == Background == See also: Samson According to the Biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon, and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV).(citation needed) Commentators also have employed the term to refer to situations where non-nuclear, non-Israeli actors have threatened conventional weapons retaliation.[2 jpost 2004-06-23] Many things in Israel are named after Samson or reference his story, including the local name of the [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules]].(Maariv 25 October 2016) The story of Samson also appears in the anthem of the [[Hilltop Youth]], a currently active [[Israeli settler violence |settler militant group]].(Haaretz 2024-03-16) The name "Operation Shimshon" (מבצע שמשון Mivtza Shimshon) has been used at least twice. The Lehi militant group used "Operation Shimshon" as the name of a [[suicide operation]] in 1947. Twenty years later, it was the name for a nuclear deployment contingency during the [[Six-Day War]].(Kikar HaShabbat 6 October 2024) Then in May 2025, [[Benjamin Netenyahu]] reportedly rejected the name "Operation Shimshon" (מבצע שמשון Mivtza Shimshon) for the [[May 2025 Gaza offensive]] by saying, "The name evokes a connotation of Samson's saying: 'My soul will die with the Philistines', but we do not intend to die with them. We want them to die alone".(Netenyahu quote ×3) === Militants suicide operations === When the Lehi militant group were discussing ways to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, a young woman volunteered to do the assassination as a suicide bombing.[5][6][7] She said "Let my soul die with the Philistines [he]" as a reference to the Samson story in the Hebrew Bible.[5][6][7] Other members of the group rejected her offer.[5][7][6] Two Zionist militants, who had both been sentenced to death by the British authorities for "terrorism" related offences, blew themselves up with improvised hand grenades in Jerusalem prison shortly before midnight on 21 April 1947.(Haarerz 4 April 2007)(Daily Mercury 23 April 1947) According to the Lehi veteran who constructed the explosives, Begin personally approved his own militant, the Lehi militant's death row cell mate, being included in the plan.(Israel Hayom 2021-05-21)(Haaretz 4 April 2007) == Nuclear ambiguity ==

2405:6E00:630:F6FD:DDFB:9610:3D1C:6943 (talk)

2405:6E00:630:9D27:B934:91A7:755E:F419 (talk) 21:15, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Hi 2405:6E00:630:9D27:B934:91A7:755E:F419,

Thanks for all the detailed content proposals—there are some really interesting points here. Before we can approve or implement any of these changes, could you please:

1. Provide inline citations for each new fact or moved sentence, formatted like:

   “<text>”<ref>{{cite …}}</ref>

2. Use reliable, secondary sources wherever possible:
   1. Academic works, books, or mainstream news outlets for historical details (e.g., the Doré-illustrated Bible handed to the prisoner in 1947).
   2. Trusted newspapers (Haaretz, Maariv, Israel Hayom) or scholarly publications—rather than partisan blogs (INN, C14) or anonymous aggregators.
   3. A neutral source for the Netanyahu quote about “Operation Shimshon” in 2025.

Once we have those verbatim text changes and solid citations, the edits can be reviewed and applied cleanly. Thanks!

Dahawk04 (talk) 14:08, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

@Dahawk04 I'll try to fix the formatting. Thank you for showing the example, I couldn't get it to work before and I thought it just didn't work in the blue and yellow boxes. It turns out a bit differently and I got confused.

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It mostly worked when I copied your example, but the numbers but the numbers still don't show up. Is this how it's supposed to work? 2405:6E00:630:F6FD:80A6:EC31:CDB4:565 (talk) 21:15, 12 July 2025 (UTC)

I'll leave the "(Haaretz 4 April 2007)" style references in the blue box because I can't get it working to show footnote numbers like it does on the page or in this reply. I have a few other sources to add, I'll add those soon. 2405:6E00:630:F6FD:DDFB:9610:3D1C:6943 (talk) 03:12, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

I think they might be "aimed at the west" figuratively / politically rather than literally. This has a little bit in Hebrew: I'm not sure if I'm supposed to add to this, but I was planning to include that in my own request below and on another page (for the first paragraph, about 1967), but the rest of it might also help with this request above. 2405:6E00:633:4ABB:C866:A30C:B217:FDC3 (talk) 19:02, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 12 July 2025

The paragraph about the Lehi in the Background section belongs in the Samson article, not the Samson Option article, as its only connection to the Samson Option is the reference to Samson. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:4040:50BF:D400:6DC2:36E:6319:A189 (talk) 10:58, 12 July 2025 (UTC)