The Israeli government has decided to impose sanctions on Haaretz, one of the country’s most established and third most widely read newspapers.
All institutions funded by the state are no longer allowed to communicate with or advertise in the newspaper. This decision comes as a reaction to articles that the government believes ‘damaged the legitimacy and right of defence of the State of Israel’.
In particular, criticism has been levelled at statements made by the publisher of Haaretz, Amos Schocken, during a conference in London last month.
Mr Schocken accused the government of pursuing apartheid policies and described Palestinians as ‘freedom fighters’. After strong reactions, he clarified that his statement did not apply to Hamas or other terrorist groups.
Haaretz, known for its left-liberal profile, has sharply criticised the Netanyahu administration during the Gaza conflict.
The newspaper responded to the sanctions by calling them ‘a further step in Netanyahu’s dismantling of Israeli democracy’.
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The Israeli nuclear arsenal and the so-called "Samson option" have become increasingly discussed in the context of the escalating situation in the Middle East.
In 1986, Israel’s nuclear weapons program was revealed – although to this day the country’s authorities have refused to acknowledge that it possesses any weapons of mass destruction. Israel’s nuclear arsenal has even been called “the world’s worst-kept secret” and, with French help, began to be developed in great secrecy as early as the 1950s.
Israeli nuclear engineer Mordechai Vanunu was the one who exposed the program in the British press, before he was kidnapped by the Mossad intelligence service, brought back to Israel and spent the next 18 years in an Israeli prison. To this day, Vanunu is banned from leaving the country and has also been sentenced to several short prison terms for “forbidden speech” related to the nuclear weapons program.
It is difficult to say with certainty how many nuclear weapons Israel actually has. In 2008, former US President Jimmy Carter speculated that at the time there were at least 150 warheads “or more”.
Samson and the Philistines
Closely related to the Israeli nuclear doctrine is the so-called “Samson option” – which refers to Israel’s strategy of retaliation in the event of a major attack on its own country, or in a situation where the very existence of the nation is deemed to be under threat.
The name is taken from the biblical character Samson, who, blinded and captured by the Philistines, finally managed to tear apart the pillars of the temple in which he was held captive – whereupon the roof collapsed, killing not only him, but also thousands of the Philistines who had tormented him.
Samson destroys the Philistine temple. Painting: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.
The Samson option, according to many analysts, is something like this – that Israel would respond with large-scale nuclear attacks if its existence were threatened or if, for example, Jerusalem were bombed to pieces.
Threatening Nixon with nuclear weapons
As early as 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel planned to detonate a nuclear device on a mountain in the Sinai Desert to warn the surrounding Arab states in the area. However, this never materialized, as Israel was able to defeat its opponents through conventional warfare.
During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, it was time again when the then Prime Minister Golda Meir chose to blackmail the US and President Nixon by preparing and threatening to use nuclear weapons against his enemies – unless the US immediately delivered war material and assistance of various kinds. Again, no nuclear bombs were detonated – according to analysts, simply because Nixon agreed to the demands.
Richard Nixon and Golda Meir. Montage. Photo: Willem van de Poll/Nationaal Archief/CC BY-SA 4.0
According to award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, during the 1970s, Israel considered the Soviet Union as the main threat, and a number of nuclear warheads were also aimed at Soviet cities – while the Soviets had several Israeli cities on their list of potential nuclear targets.
Hersh argues that the nuclear doctrine changed when right-wing leader Menachem Begin took power in 1977, and that an ambition emerged not only to acquire a large number of nuclear weapons to respond to a possible attack, but also with the aim to “use Israeli might to redraw the political map of the Middle East”.
“The power to destroy the world”
After all, the most commonly held view is that the purpose of the so-called Samson option is to destroy or annihilate states that attack Israel. However, others go further and argue that it is instead about “taking revenge on the world” and that Israel, if it perceives an existential threat, wants to cause as much damage and devastation as possible even to countries not directly involved in the attack against them. For example, Jewish professor David Perlmutter of Louisiana State University expressed such a view in the LA Times in 2002.
“Israel has been building nuclear weapons for 30 years. The Jews understand what passive and powerless acceptance of doom has meant for them in the past, and they have ensured against it. Masada was not an example to follow – it hurt the Romans not a whit, but Samson in Gaza? What would serve the Jew-hating world better in repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a Nuclear Winter. Or invite all those tut-tutting European statesmen and peace activists to join us in the ovens?”wrote Perlmutter.
“For the first time in history, a people facing extermination while the world either cackles or looks away – unlike the Armenians, Tibetans, World War II European Jews or Rwandans – have the power to destroy the world. The ultimate justice?” Perlmutter asked himself further.
“Destroying the pillars of the world”
Jewish writer and journalist Ron Rosenbaum also argues that Israel, in the “aftermath of a second Holocaust”, could not only attack its aggressors but also “bring down the pillars of the world (attack Moscow and European capitals for instance)” on the grounds that anti-Semitism associated with past persecutions in history must be avenged. Even “the holy places of Islam” could be attacked with nuclear weapons in such a situation, according to Rosenbaum, who emphasizes that “abandonment of proportionality is the essence” of the Samson option.
Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld takes a similar line. In the context of the second intifada, he said that Israel had “hundreds of nuclear weapons” – and that these could also be aimed at European capitals, which he said were in the line of fire of the Israeli military.
“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 for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: ‘Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother'”.
“I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under”, Mr. van Creveld further declared.
Moshe Dayan (former Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs) said that Israel must act “like a mad dog”. Photo: National Library of Israel/ CC BY 4.0
Jerusalem Post journalist Gil Ronen has also described the Samson option as a way for Israel to annihilate its enemies and “possibly causing irreparable damage to the entire world” in a situation where “Israel faces annihilation”.
Unwavering support from the West?
Since Israeli officials will not even acknowledge that they have nuclear weapons – or how many, it is of course impossible at this stage for the country’s leaders to be clear about their strategy with regard to them. Furthermore, it is of course unlikely that Israel – or any other country for that matter – would admit that it intends to “take the world with it if it falls” – even if that were the case. This is rarely the case, although Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, admitted during Oliver Stone’s visit to Moscow that he believes a nuclear war between Russia and the United States “would probably have no winners”.
What the Samson option actually means in a “worst case scenario” will be the subject of further discussion – not least as the situation across the Middle East continues to become increasingly risky and escalatory, with Israel now attacking Iranian targets (and vice versa).
Western support for Israel seems unwavering – despite the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza and alerts from human rights organizations about violations of international law. Can this be explained by historical loyalty to Israel alone? Or is there possibly also a fear somewhere in the picture, a fear that, to quote Moshe Dayan, the country’s political leadership would actually act “like a mad dog” if left to its own devices?
Images spread of civilians in Alawite areas being randomly executed and humiliated by regime soldiers, including being forced to crawl like dogs before being killed.
At least 1,000 people are reported to have been killed in Syria in recent days – many belonging to the Alawite community, the same ethnic group as Syria’s ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
The UN warns that children, women and entire families are being massacred in Alawite towns and villages and that fathers are being executed in front of their families.
Western media describe the massacres as “clashes” between Syrian security forces loyal to the new Syrian Islamist regime and supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad.
On Sunday, it was reported that 745 civilians were killed along with 125 government soldiers and 148 militants “affiliated with Assad” and a large number of Alawites were executed in or outside their homes in Syria’s coastal region before their homes were set on fire.
In the town of Baniyas, residents testify that heavily armed men arrived and killed people in their shops and homes, allegedly in retaliation for the Alawites’ past support for Assad’s secular rule. Many of the killers were reportedly foreigners.
“Summary executions”
Human rights groups and analysts warn that these appear to be purely ethnic cleansing campaigns, with victims selected on the basis of their ethno-religious affiliation.
–In a number of extremely disturbing instances, entire families – including women, children and individuals hors de combat – were killed, with predominantly Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular, said Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office.
– Many of the cases documented were of summary executions. They appear to have been carried out on a sectarian basis… In some cases, men were shot dead in front of their families, he continued.
In the small town of Sanobar, the mayor and his three sons were executed in front of the wife/mother – and the killers threatened to kill the grandchildren too if the family did not give up their gold. In several other incidents, the killers have come by car to smaller communities, searched all the houses, and executed all the men they found.
Murder of Christians
While representatives of the Syrian Islamist regime claim that “no one is above the law” and say they intend to investigate the massacres, they claim that Alawites loyal to Assad are to blame for the killings.
–Today, as we stand at this critical moment, we find ourselves facing a new danger – attempts by remnants of the former regime and their foreign backers to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war, aiming to divide it and destroy its unity and stability, said Syria’s interim president and former wanted al-Qaeda leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani during a press conference.
Many Alawites have taken refuge in the Russian-controlled Khmeimi airbase and there are reports that drones and tanks have been used to shell towns and villages. Although a large proportion of those killed are believed to belong to the Alawite minority, several Syrian Christians are also reported to have been killed by the jihadists.
A large number of clips are circulating on social media showing Alawites being forced to crawl around, bark like dogs or otherwise humiliate themselves before being tortured or killed. Often, the killers themselves appear to have filmed their abuse and can be heard laughing in some of the videos.
Expected development
The Nordic Times has previously reported on how Syria’s new regime is de facto made up of fundamentalist and militant Islamists with a background in al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Although analysts warned early on that mass killings, oppression and repression of ethnic and religious minorities are expected to increase sharply under the new regime, those in power in the West have rather tried to portray Syria’s new regime as a moderate force, a legitimate partner and a positive change compared to the overthrown leader Assad, who represented the Arab socialist secular Baath Party.
In large part, the friendly attitude from the West is seen as a result of the Syrian jihadists’ pledge to open up Syria to foreign exploitation and to become an “open economy”.
– We plan to attract foreign investment and establish partnerships with all countries around the world,said Syria’s foreign minister, for example, during a discussion with notorious globalist Tony Blair at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
Iran has unveiled an underground naval base, located 500 meters below the surface in the Persian Gulf.
The base, whose exact location has not been disclosed, is designed to house advanced ships equipped with long-range missiles and conduct operations with very high precision and range.
The underground construction is unique in its deep location and security against air strikes and other types of attacks. According to Iranian state media reports, the base contains Taregh-class radar-evading speedboats capable of firing cruise missiles. These boats are also said to have the capacity to destroy US warships and destroyers.
General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards, recently visited the facility during a military exercise and described the development as an important step in the country’s defense strategy. He commented that the base is one of several underground facilities built to strengthen Iran’s naval capabilities.
WATCH: Iran’s IRGC Navy unveils underground base housing combat boats specialized in targeting US warships
– We assure the great nation of Iran that their young people are capable of coming out honorable and victorious from a battle on the seas against enemies big and small, the general commented.
The purpose of showcasing the base in this way is believed to be to send a clear signal to the outside world – and hostile nations like the US and Israel in particular. The location in the Persian Gulf is also said to strengthen Iran’s position in a strategically important region for world trade, through which a large part of global oil exports pass.
Israel's military claims that it always ensures that the number of civilian casualties “is not disproportionate to the military advantage expected from the attack”.
At least 73 people were killed when the Israeli military bombed a six-storey building in the Lebanese village of Ain El Delb in late September last year – the deadliest Israeli attack in the country in the last 18 years.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) quickly claimed the building was a “terrorist command center” and that “the overwhelming majority” of those killed were terrorists – but a review shows that almost all the victims were civilians.
The BBC’s thorough investigation has identified 68 of the 73 victims, of whom at least 62 were civilians, including 23 children. Only six victims could be linked to Hezbollah’s military wing, and none of these appear to have been in a senior position.
The investigation has revealed details that have provoked grief and outrage on social media. A small infant, just months old, was killed in apartment 2B; in apartment 1C, teacher Abeer Hallak lost her life along with her husband and three children; and three floors up, three generations of the Hakawati family were wiped out.
The IDF has chosen not to comment on whether the six identified Hezbollah fighters were the intended targets. However, the IDF claims that it constantly makes assessments to ensure that the number of civilian casualties “is not disproportionate to the military advantage expected from the attack”.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombings and attacks have claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused widespread destruction in Lebanon. Numerous attacks have also been carried out against hospitals and other health facilities and nearly 1.5 million Lebanese have been forced to leave their homes.
As usual, the Israeli military attributes the civilian casualties to the use of human shields by their enemies, who attack Israeli targets from densely populated locations – such as hospitals or residential complexes.
