For a country as small as Israel, even a small-scale nuclear attack could be an existential threat.

ECONOMIST: Conflict in the Middle East

During the Cold War, when the United States faced the threat of a nuclear attack, U.S. administrations made clear that any strike would prompt an all-out retaliation.

NPR: Cyberattack: U.S. Unready For Future Face Of War

And the weaker party, if nuclear capable, invariably holds out the threat of nuclear war as a way to deter conventional attack.

CNN: The Terrible Logic of Nukes

But as nuclear and missile technology has proliferated in the post-Cold War period, and more technologically primitive countries get their hands on missiles and limited nuclear capabilities, the threat of an EMP attack as become far more acute.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: An urgent memo to the next government

Such a proposition was dubious twenty years ago when the only threat of ballistic missile attack was from the USSR and involved nuclear weapons.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | ��The Case For Ending US And Israeli Strategic Vulnerability��