Meet the US Military Expert Defending Israel
A conversation with West Point’s urban warfare expert, John Spencer, on claims of genocide and civilian harm in Gaza.
Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Photographer: BASHAR TALEB/AFPListen to any Israeli official responding to accusations over genocide 10 months into the war in Gaza, and you’re likely to hear some variation of the following: “You’re wrong, just ask John Spencer, the world’s foremost expert on urban warfare.”
So important has this American soldier-turned-academic become to Israel’s pushback against critics that, last month, during his third field trip to Israel and Gaza since the start of hostilities, he got a call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to ask if he would like to meet. Their encounter got recorded as an interview and, in July, Netanyahu went on to cite him in an address to a joint session of the US Congress.
