It [the Samson Option] is in stark contrast, say analysts, to the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), where if one nuclear power pre-emptively attacked another, then the targeted nation would still have time to retaliate, ensuring neither would survive.
I must be missing something important. I don’t understand why the Samson Option is “in stark contrast” to MAD. I mean, everyone still dies, so they seem pretty similar to me.
The Wikipedia article is kind of misleading. The Samson options isn't just MAD in that they plan to launch at their enemies. They plan to nuke other countries too. Like European countries that have nothing to do with the conflict. It's a blackmail scheme. (Source: Hersh, Seymour (1991), The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy)
MAD is a nuclear deterrent scheme to discourage anyone from launching nukes. The Samson Option involves nuking much of the world as Israel’s dying breath, even if it’s attacked using conventional weapons.