Episode 3: John Spencer on why Israel hasn't yet won the war in Gaza

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 640 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

In our first interview episode, Haviv Rettig Gur sits down (virtually) with Prof. John Spencer of West Point, one of the foremost experts in urban warfare who has made a special study of Israeli warfighting tactics and strategy.

Many subscribers to this podcast have asked us why Israel doesn’t seem to have won this war, why Hamas is still standing after 17 months of fighting and why Israel must still negotiate for its hostages.

For answers we turned to Prof. Spencer. We learned about the IDF’s astonishing successes, such as its groundbreaking tactical innovations in tunnel warfare. And we learned about the gaping lacuna at the heart of Israel’s strategy in Gaza — the reason it still hasn’t won the war.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.

Please join me on Patreon to support this project: https://www.patreon.com/AskHavivAnything

If you would like to sponsor an episode please email [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode three of Ask for Leave Anything. I'm on the road,
0:09.8	and I had the unbelievable honor and privilege of running into Professor John Spencer.
0:15.8	And we're going to talk today about the war in Gaza. And we're going to dive deep. We're going to talk
0:20.8	about history and strategy and what it looks like in Gaza. A lot of questions have been asked to me,
0:26.6	to many people I, you know, to the discourse, to the general sort of as a journalist, people have
0:30.4	been asking me. What's the war like, can you beat Hamas? Is the Israeli army unnecessarily
0:36.1	cruel? What's the future look like?
0:38.3	Are the Israelis winning?
0:39.3	What do they need to do to win?
0:41.3	Was it wise for Netanyahu to start talking about absolute victory?
0:44.3	We're going to dive into all of that.
0:47.3	Before we do that, a cart fell thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode
0:52.3	and a series of episodes that we are dedicating,
0:55.5	that they have asked to dedicate to people who fell on October 7th.
1:00.4	I want today to remember we've all felt the tragedy over the past week of the Bebus Boys.
1:08.5	And I want today to remember the other infant who died on October 7.
1:15.9	Mila Cohen was nine months old in Kibbutz Beiri. She was shot by Hamas terrorists in the arms of
1:21.6	her mother, Sandra, when they storm the kibbutz on October 7. Her father, Ohat Cohen, 43, and Grandma Yonah, 73, were also
1:31.3	killed in her home. All three family members were laid to rest at the Ilkone Cemetery in Pettachlikva together.
1:38.2	Mother Sandra survived. She was seriously wounded. Mela's brothers, Liam and Dylan also survive. It's hard to go from that
1:49.8	moment to just suddenly having an upfront, you know, happy conversation about these very
1:54.2	terrible and sad things, but that's the moment we live in, and that's what the war ultimately
	...

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