Yigal Allon was a 1948 war hero and a close adviser to Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]]. He was an advocate of [[West Bank]] resettlement. Allon, along with [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and [[Ariel Sharon]], believed that [[Israel]]'s essential advantage over the Arabs was the quality and training of its military personnel, and viewed nuclear weapons as nothing more than a great equalizer.[^1] In early December 1967, Allon was given a private look at [[Israel]]'s early work on its first nuclear missile field, under construction at Hirbat Zachariah. This experience moved him to tears, as he saw it as a new kind of military security for the nation. He couldn't resist boasting about what he had seen, stunning his cabinet colleagues by warning [[Egypt]] in a public speech that [[Israel]] would reply in kind to any Egyptian attack on a population center using advanced weapons. His cryptic assertions were privately attacked by other government officials as a breach of security and publicly criticized in the press for creating panic.[^1] Allon was among those in the kitchen cabinet who assembled for an all-night session in [[Golda Meir]]'s office in [[Tel Aviv]] on Monday, October 8, 1973, during the [[Yom Kippur War]]. The Israeli leadership resolved to implement three critical decisions: rally its collapsing forces for a major counterattack; arm and target its nuclear arsenal in the event of total collapse and subsequent need for the [[Samson Option]]; and inform [[Washington D.C.]] of its unprecedented nuclear action to demand an emergency airlift of replacement arms and ammunition.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 9, 13. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.