While I was in Israel recently I had the opportunity to interview Prime Minister Netanyahu @netanyahu on the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. We discussed everything from the strategic goals of the war, historic comparisons, to the progress of the @IDF pic.twitter.com/cRH2wUvHV3
— John Spencer (@SpencerGuard) March 15, 2024
John Spencer is a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Army, and is currently a Professor of Urban Warfare at West Point. He has written frequently about Israel’s Operation Iron Shield in Gaza, concluding that the IDF has “implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history.” He met recently with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the current state of the war in Gaza, the way the war has been reported, Israel’s success so far in achieving its objectives, and what remains to be done. You can find that colloquy here: “New warfare standards gives ‘terrorists absolute immunity’, Netanyahu tells West Point scholar,” Jerusalem Post, March 16, 2024 01:55
In an interview with a scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute posted on X on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained why it was imperative for Israel to enter Rafah to win the war.
Netanyahu met with John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies while on his visit to Israel.
Spencer described the current war, also titled Operation Swords of Iron, as “one of the most historic wars of our generation” at the beginning of the interview, also noting it as a “generational war.”
Netanyahu went on to say that victory against the terrorist organization is “within reach” and that three-quarters of their fighting battalions have been destroyed. He has said that the IDF “intends to complete the job while evacuating civilians and taking care to provide them humanitarian aid.”
Spencer also said that the IDF takes more measures to limit civilian casualties than the United States army had in previous wars, noting that the US military “didn’t give warning” in many cases in urban areas. Both men acknowledge that Israel giving such warning to Palestinian civilians gives Hamas a military advantage over the IDF….
The world’s media has been carrying lots of photos and videos of Gazan “civilians” — ideally, women and children bleeding from their wounds, and moaning in pain. Still better from Hamas’ point of view are photos of dead civilians, certain to be covered on the evening news. This is part of Hamas’ strategy of exploiting those tunnels to hide men and weapons in order to drag out the war in Gaza, so that the world can be turned against Israel. That brief moment of sympathy and solidarity for Israel on October 7 did not last long. As soon as the casualty figures began to come in from Gaza, that sympathy was transferred to the Gazans. Israel, of course, has only had one goal: to defend itself against those who attacked the people of Israel on October 7, committing the most unspeakable atrocities, and to ensure that Hamas is crushed so that it will not be able to repeat such an attack, as it has promised to do, again and again and again. Just look at how the international media most hostile to Israel — the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian being the most prominent — have in the last few months managed to turn much of world opinion against the Jewish state.
Yet British Colonel Richard Kemp has been studying the IDF’s performance for years, and has been in Israel, and Gaza, since just after October 7. He reiterates, based on this recent experience, his previous conclusion that the IDF is “the most moral army in the world.”
Now the American John Spencer explains that “the IDF takes more measures to limit civilian casualties than the United States army had in previous wars.” Who should we believe better comprehends the IDF’s remarkable performance in Gaza — Rashida Tlaib, Bernie Sanders, and Antonio Guterres, or Colonel Richard Kemp and Professor John Spencer?
Dick Tracy says
If you ask me, Israel only made one mistake, but it was a seriously damaging one. They showed too much of the destruction they caused. They should not have allowed the press to report on it, and the reports blew up in their face. Even so, they have my blessing.
angelo barbato says
No ceasefire, . Every single one of the murderers, rapists and terrorists should be hunted down a disposed of the waste product of humanity!