“The Man Defending Israel's Battlefield”

Chosen for bringing military expertise and intellectual rigor to one of the most misunderstood conflicts in the world: John Spencer has become one of the most influential independent experts explaining modern urban warfare, and Israel's conduct in Gaza.

Israel has taken extraordinary measures to protect civilians.

John Spencer, 2026

A former U.S. Army officer and one of the world's leading urban warfare scholars, Spencer has spent years studying the realities of combat in dense cities. His analysis has repeatedly challenged claims that Israel's military operations can be understood without accounting for Hamas's tunnels, human shielding and the extraordinary density of Gaza.

In 2026, his expertise became even more relevant as Israel's military operations continued to face intense international scrutiny. Spencer has provided a military perspective largely absent from much of the political debate, explaining what combat actually looks like when an army is fighting an entrenched terrorist organization inside one of the world's most densely populated environments.

His influence even reached the highest levels of the U.S.-Israel conversation, with Ambassador Mike Huckabee publicly citing Spencer's research when defending Israel's conduct in Gaza.

At a time when Israel's military is being judged around the world, Spencer has insisted that the battlefield be understood before it is condemned. He doesn't fight Israel's battles with weapons. He fights them with facts.

That is why John Spencer is No. 25 on The 36.