Filed with Key Arguments (MOC) · Related: 60.1 Israel-Palestine · Sources, Books & Media (MOC)

Attachment (file not included in this release)

“A Deal With BARBARIANS!” Scott Horton FIERY Debate On Iran War & Trump | With John Bolton

Scott Horton Quote

Israel is not Israel has threatened to nuke London and Paris and Berlin and Rome. It’s called the Samson option. There’s a book by Seymour Hirs called the Samson option. I didn’t say they want to. I said they have threatened that if the western states abandon Israel to be overrun that they’ll nuke us, too. And I’m not saying that’s always been the permanent doctrine, but it’s called the Samson option, and it was their doctrine, at least in the 1970s. There’s a book about it by Seymour. You can pretend like you’ve never heard of such a thing, but everyone else watching this can just Google up the Samson option and read it for themselves.

Book fact check

The claim is not supported by the book as stated.

In Seymour Hersh’s The Samson Option, the “Samson Option” refers to Israel’s nuclear last-resort deterrent: the idea that, if Israel faced destruction, it could retaliate catastrophically rather than allow a “second Holocaust.” Hersh explains the term through the biblical Samson story and says Israeli nuclear advocates used it as another way of saying “Never again.”

What the book does say:

1. Israel developed a secret nuclear arsenal, and Hersh frames the book as an investigation of how Israel became a nuclear power and how U.S. officials handled or ignored that fact.
2. The core “Samson Option” logic is existential deterrence, not a documented threat to destroy European capitals. Hersh describes nuclear advocates arguing that Israel’s arsenal would prevent another Masada-like national catastrophe and deter Arab conquest.
3. Hersh does claim that Israel targeted the Soviet Union with nuclear warheads and missiles, and that Menachem Begin allegedly ordered more Soviet cities targeted, according to Ari Ben-Menashe.
4. Hersh’s epilogue says Israel’s nuclear arsenal’s “basic target” was and would remain its Arab neighbors, especially in scenarios involving Egypt, Syria, Iraq, or another Arab missile attack.

What the book does not appear to say:

It does not say that Israel “threatened to nuke London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.” Those city names appear in different contexts: London and Rome appear prominently in the Mordechai Vanunu abduction story, Paris appears in relation to French nuclear involvement and French officials, and Berlin appears in historical background. But that is not the same as saying Israel threatened nuclear strikes on those cities.

A more accurate version would be:

Seymour Hersh’s The Samson Option argues that Israel secretly developed a nuclear arsenal as an existential deterrent, with the last-resort “Samson Option” meaning catastrophic retaliation if Israel faced destruction. Hersh also reports claims that Israel targeted Soviet cities and maintained nuclear options against regional enemies. The book does not substantiate the claim that Israel threatened to nuke London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.

Verdict: False or heavily distorted attribution. The book supports claims about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, existential deterrence, possible Soviet targeting, and regional nuclear contingencies. It does not support the specific claim about threatening London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.

Random Leaked Photo showing US Targets

Possibly, but I would not say “the source was Iran” as a verified fact.

What I found is that versions of this image are circulating on social media with captions claiming it was “released from Iran’s recent batch of hacked Israeli intelligence files.” One Facebook post makes exactly that claim, saying the images were “supposedly released from Iran’s recent batch of hacked Israeli intelligence files” and that they “claim to expose Israel’s ‘Samson Option.’” That wording itself is hedged: supposedly, claim to expose. (Facebook)

I found the same image/text spreading across Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and Reddit-style conspiracy spaces, but I did not find a reliable primary source, government release, reputable news report, or authenticated leak archive verifying that Iran produced it or obtained it from Israeli files. Search results show social-media reposts, not a credible provenance chain. (Reddit)

The safer conclusion:

The image appears to be part of a social-media claim that it came from an Iranian hack/leak of Israeli intelligence files, but I found no reliable evidence authenticating that provenance. Treat “Iran leaked this” as an unverified claim, not established fact.

Also, the document itself has major red flags: no classification markings, no document number, no date, no unit/office, generic table formatting, odd operational language, and technically questionable claims such as “Jericho 3” being submarine-launched. Those are reasons to treat it as likely fabricated or at least unauthenticated.

I can’t prove the absolute first online posting because social platforms are incomplete, posts can be deleted, and search indexing is uneven. But the earliest traceable/public instance I found points to ZirafaMedia around June 15, 2025, not an official Iranian source.

The best provenance chain I found:

1. ZirafaMedia Instagram post
   Search results show the same caption: “Images supposedly released from Iran’s recent batch of hacked Israeli intelligence files claim to expose Israel’s ‘Samson Option’ nuclear target list.”
   URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/DK8TLzAtiti/
   The search result itself does not show the date, but the same claim appears on ZirafaMedia’s Threads account dated June 15, 2025. (Instagram)
2. ZirafaMedia Threads post — June 15, 2025
   This is the earliest dated instance I found.
   URL: https://www.threads.com/@zirafamedia/post/DK8UFYvp5eQ/circulating-images-supposedly-released-from-irans-recent-batch-of-hacked-israeli
   Search result date: June 15, 2025. (Threads)
3. X/Twitter reposts — June 16, 2025
   I found X/Twitter reposts of the same claim from June 16, 2025. One status ID resolves to June 16, 2025, 05:00 UTC; another to June 16, 2025, 22:32 UTC. The tool could find the posts but could not render their contents fully. (X (formerly Twitter))
4. Substack repost — June 17, 2025
   A Substack post titled “The Samson Option: If Israel goes down, they take everyone else with it” reproduced the same claim and directly credited ZirafaMedia. It also linked an X post and described the images as “supposedly released from Iran’s recent batch of hacked Israeli intelligence files.” (seemorerocks.substack.com)
   URL: https://seemorerocks.substack.com/p/the-samson-option-if-israel-goes
5. Reddit reposts — around June 2025
   Reddit posts in r/ZirafaMedia and r/conspiracy reposted the same claim and explicitly credited ZirafaMedia. One r/conspiracy post included the “Via ZirafaMedia” caption and users in the comments quickly questioned the authenticity, including the Hebrew/table formatting. (Reddit)

Best answer

The earliest public instance I could trace is ZirafaMedia’s post on or around June 15, 2025, especially its Threads post dated June 15 and its Instagram post with the same image/caption. I did not find an earlier Iranian government, Iranian media, hacker-group archive, Telegram leak channel, or authenticated primary-source release.

So the more accurate statement is:

The image appears to have entered public circulation through ZirafaMedia/social-media reposts around June 15, 2025, with the caption claiming it came from Iranian-hacked Israeli files. I found no reliable primary evidence that Iran itself was the original source.