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John Spencer served in the US Army for twenty-five years, including two tours in Iraq. Since then he been a Professor of Urban Warfare at West Point. Recognized as an expert in his field, John Spencer has become more widely known for his recent writings on the IDF’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza. His latest posting on the subject can be found here: “‘Israel is measured by double and triple standards,’ does more than anyone to prevent civilian harm, US warfare expert says,” All Israel News, June 27, 2024:
“Israel is being measured by double and triple standards” in its fighting in Gaza, a standard “that does not exist anywhere in the world,” said John Spencer, head of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point, at a recent “War Room” briefing in collaboration with the Jerusalem Institute for Public and State Affairs (JCPA).
Spencer, the world-renowned urban warfare who served for 25 years as an infantry soldier and did two tours in Iraq, has publicly and repeatedly defended and praised the Israel Defense Forces’ performance during the Gaza War in recent months.
“The IDF uses tactics that no army has ever seen to prevent harm to civilians and still fulfill its mission,” Spencer told the JCPA after visiting the soldiers of the IDF’s 98th Division in the field.
He also stridently rejected international accusations that Israel was using starvation as a weapon, bombing indiscriminately or committing genocide.
“It’s all a lie,” Spencer declared, noting that if the standards currently applied to Israel were applied to Western countries in the future, it would make anti-terror warfare almost impossible.
Such standards include requiring the massive evacuation of a population before entering an area, not using heavy “bunker-buster” bombs to reach enemies hidden away underground, and the demand to prevent any and all civilian casualties.
“It’s impossible and unimaginable,” Spencer stressed….
“This imaginary standard of zero civilian casualties in a war where Israel is required to meet a new standard is very problematic,” Spencer emphasized.
He has made this point repeatedly over the past months. In an article in Newsweek in March, Spencer brought up the IDF’s operation at Al-Shifa Hospital as an example of the lengths the army goes to prevent civilian harm in Gaza.
“Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside,” Spencer wrote.
“None of this meant anything to Israel’s critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn’t call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity.”
One more statistic, that is not included in this piece by Spencer, but that he has provided in many of his other articles on the Gaza war, tells us as a great deal about the IDF’s solicitude for the lives of civilians. This is the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths. The UN has said that in all the wars fought since 1945, the average ratio was 9:1, or nine civilian deaths for every combatant death. In Afghanistan, the Americans managed to reduce that ratio to 4:1, and in Iraq to 3:1. But no army in the world has come close to what the IDF has achieved in Gaza.
Hamas has claimed 38,000 dead, without providing separate figures for civilians and Hamas combatants. The IDF now says it has killed 17,000 operatives — and that is without counting those members of Hamas who were killed when the rubble of bombed buildings landed on top of them. That would mean 21,000 civilian deaths. From that number we have to subtract the 800 Gazans who die each month of natural causes; over eight months that figure would account for 6400 civilian deaths. That brings the total number of civilian deaths to 14,600. How many of those 14,600 civilians were killed not by the IDF, but by the estimated 20% of Hamas rockets that fell inside Gaza?
A most conservative estimate would be 200 a month, or 1,600 over the first eight months of the war. That brings down the number of civilians killed by Israeli fire to 13,000, while the number of combatant deaths so far is 17,000. The civilian-to-combatant ratio in Gaza is thus 13:17, which is less than 1:1 – a ratio unheard of, as Professor Spencer has said, in the annals of modern warfare.
Marxists and Islamists have appropriated the full rights of victimhood as an always available option. The reality is that their people and supporters have largely accepted roles as children who simply have no agency.
But that’s just propaganda and they’ve been trained to cry like helpless babies whenever confronted with the consequences of their actions.
Islam is always and ever the victim. This is part and parcel of their war strategies.
Mouse-E-Dung was a far bigger Mass Killer then Hitler
”The civilian-to-combatant ratio in Gaza is thus 13:17, which is less than 1:1 – a ratio unheard of, as Professor Spencer HAS SAID, in the annals of modern warfare.”
1. SPENSER,being a scholar,knows that the number of Ukrainian civilians killed is about 9,000 and the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed is 800,000.
For the last 2 months it has been minimum 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers KILLED per DAY.
That is a ration of 1 civilian per 90 soldiers, a ratio that exceeds 1:1. That raises a red flag as to Spenser’s knowledge.
2. Spenser knows that a civilian taken by soldiers in a war is a HOSTAGE. A soldier taken by the opposing army is a PRISONER of WAR,not a hostage. And a soldier is a legitimate target,a civilian is not,according to the Geneva Convention.
3. Military analyst DOUGLAS MACGREGOR is respected and has contacts who give him reliable information. John Spenser as a scholar knows that in war there are DIRECT deaths,those killed by bombs,bullets.
And INDIRECT deaths, which are all EXCESS deaths. Deaths that would NOT have happened had there been no war.
Colonel MacGregor has said the number of direct and indirect deaths since Oct 7 is a quarter of a million, 250,000 Palestinians who have died, like 12% of the population of Gaza.
”In WAR as in war”.Translation of the French ”A la guerre comme a la guerre”.It has the same meaning as the English:
”ALL is FAIR in love and war”.Any atrocities and war crimes.Who said that and in French?
The Israeli government is a coalition of 3 parties,two of which are religious parties and both of which want:
1.The Destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque,to be replaced by the TEMPLE of JERUSALEM.2.For a GREATER ISRAEL ( Gaza,Israel,West Bank,Jordan and more,based on GENESIS 15:18,where Abraham and his descendants are promised land by God ( the Abrahamic Covenant) (” On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram”) ”from the river in Egypt ( Nile ) to the Great River (Euphrates)”)”In WAR as in war”
But said by who and in what context?
Said by BEZALEL SMOTRICH,very religious Orthodox Jew,head of one of the 3 parties of the coalition ,called ”National Religious Party–Religious Zionism” .Minister of Finance since 2022.
In 2017 he had published his DEFINITIVE PLAN.In February 2023 he was entrusted with a large part of the administration of the occupied West Bank. His 2017 Definitive Plan gives Palestinians of the West Bank three options:
1.Emigrate
2.Stay for ”those who wish to forgo their national aspirations”, but with NO right to vote in Israeli elections.
a. According to INTERNATIONAL law,the West Bank is an OCCUPIED territory.The UN and the Geneva Convention authorize armed revolt against the occupier.
b. RIGHT of armed revolt in the name of self-determination(”national aspirations”) if the people live in an Occupied Land.So it would not justify say armed revolt by Catalans in Spain,Basques in France,Quebecois in Canada.
c. But it has to be according to the Rules of War,no kidnapping,killing of any civilians.
In the Defintive Plan Smotrich wrote:”and who will choose to continue the armed struggle against the State of Israel. A la guerre comme a la guerre.”(In war as in war).
( in ”Stage Two: The Two Options and Military Victory, 3. Military Victory”).
Here is the text of Definitive Plan(2017)Israel’s Decisive Plan – השילוח (hashiloach.org.il)
When asked at a meeting, where he presented his plan to other religious Zionists,if he also meant killing FAMILIES, WOMEN and CHILDREN, Smotrich replied:
“In war as in war.”
Ok with war crimes against civilians (anti Geneva Convention) and COLLECTIVE punishment.
Why do EVANGELICAL Christians give the Israeli GOVERNMENT unconditional support?
Even when it commits war crimes?
1. Because of GENESIS 12:1-3,”The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
2. Very strange since JESUS himself did NOT hesitate to CURSE the leaders of the Jewish government of his time,the PHARISEES. Calling them evil,corrupt. The Woes of the Pharisees are maledictions by Jesus against scribes and Pharisees recorded in Luke 11 :37–54 and Matthew 23 :1–39. Mark 12 :35–40 and Luke 20 :45–47 .He says things like:
” “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
” “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.”
‘“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
3. They also neglect advice Jesus gave to his followers:
“Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves. Therefore be as SLY as SERPENTS and as innocent as doves” ( Be good but don’t be stupid)
4. And commented that they would be fools,in LUKE 16:8,”And his master complimented the UNRIGHTEOUS manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the SONS of this AGE
are MORE shrewd in relation to their own kind than the SONS of LIGHT.”
The Palestinian Playbook:
1. Kill, rape, kidnap and burn alive as many Jewish men, women and children in Israel as possible whenever possible.
2. Celebrate in the streets.
3. Promise that attacks will not stop until all 7 million Jews in Israel are dead.
4. Hide in tunnels, schools and hospitals behind and beneath Palestinian women and children.
5. Show dead and suffering Palestinian women and children to the Washington Post, the New York Times and CNN.
6. Whine to the Washington Post, the New York Times and CNN about Collective Punishment, Disproportionate Responses and Israeli War Crimes and the dead and suffering Palestinian women and children.
7. Demand an Immediate Ceasefire.
8. Get Europe and the USA to demand an immediate Ceasefire.
9. Get Politically Correct Jews, university students, the World Press and politicians to join in the demand for an immediate Ceasefire.
10. Force Israel to accept an immediate Ceasefire.
11. Repeat 1-10.
Works every time.