Episode 97: Can America and Israel finish the job? A conversation with John Spencer.

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is this war really about, and how does it end? We sit down with warfare scholar John Spencer to explore not just the military campaign itself, but the larger stakes of this war: Whether the US, Israel and their growing list of regional allies will be able and willing (two separate questions) to carry this war to a comprehensive conclusion, one that begins the process, even if it is slow and difficult, of bringing down a regime built on terror, proxies, and chaos, or whether the world will once again step back and leave the threat intact. It’s a conversation about strategy, uncertainty, and the price of waiting too long to confront danger.

This episode is sponsored by Tina and Akiva Katz and is dedicated to two very different groups of Israelis who are close to their hearts.

"The first is our family – specifically Mishpachot Alfassi, Passal, Gizbar, Weiss, and Megidish – who fought and served so bravely and sacrificed so much since the 7th. We are forever grateful for your service and deeply inspired by your devotion to Medinat Israel."

"The second group is our family by choice -- Mishpachat Damari of Kfar Aza. To the quietly indomitable and fierce Mandy Damari, who fought tooth and nail to bring her amazing daughter Emily and the rest of our chatufim home. And to the Damari children -- Emily, Ben, Tom, and Sean -- we love you."

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to a new episode of Ask Aviv Anything.
0:08.7	We are on day 11 of the war, depending on your time zone, maybe day 12.
0:13.3	And there's so many questions being asked in Israel, in America, on the world stage, probably presumably in Iran, about what's happening
0:22.8	in this war, what the strategy is the United States, what Israel's goals and objectives are,
0:28.0	when it all ends, what it's all meant to achieve, and who's actually winning, who's actually
0:33.3	achieving their goals and who isn't achieving their goals. To answer some of these questions,
0:39.3	or at the very least to tackle them with deep knowledge, we've invited back, and I'm very
0:44.0	grateful that he's joining us, John Spencer, a longtime friend of this podcast from its very early
0:49.3	day, someone I have learned from a lot. For those who are not familiar, he's an internationally
0:53.7	recognized national security and military analysts specializing in war. I have learned from a lot. For those who are not familiar, he's an internationally recognized
0:54.6	national security and military analysts specializing in war, in strategy and tactics, specifically
1:01.3	specializing in urban warfare. John currently serves as the co-director of the Urban
1:06.7	Warfare Project and the chair of war studies at the Madison Policy Forum, and he's the host of the
1:11.7	Urban Warfare Podcast, now in its sixth year, which explores every dimension of urban combat
1:17.3	through in-depth conversations with commanders of major battles, technical experts, veterans,
1:22.3	and scholars. So we're going to take apart this war and really try to understand it from the perspective
1:28.7	of someone who has commanded men in war and understands American strategy and understands
1:33.7	historically how these wars look.
1:35.9	Before we get into it, I want to tell you that this episode is sponsored by Tina and
1:39.6	Akiva Katz, and it's dedicated to two very different groups of Israelis who are close to their hearts.
1:45.2	The first, they write us, is our family, specifically the family's Alfasi, Passal, Gisbar,
1:51.2	Weiss, and Meghidish, who fought and served so bravely and sacrificed so much since the 7th of
	...

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