Colonel John Spencer, a former U.S. Army officer and urban warfare expert and researcher, has joined the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) as a research fellow.
At the onset of the Israel-Iran war last weekend, Spencer – a scholar at the U.S. military academy – declared the conflict to be “a milestone in the history of 21st-century warfare.”
He analyzes Operation “Am KeLavi” (“Rising Lion”) against the Iranian threat: “This is an event that will change everything we knew about modern war.”
According to Spencer (in an unspecified statement), Operation “Am KeLavi,” launched by Israel on June 13 with a coordinated deep-strike campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities and Revolutionary Guard command leadership, was “an attack designed around a single principle – to paralyze Iranian capabilities before the enemy even realized that war had begun. This wasn’t a typical strike – it was a complete neutralization of the Iranian threat to Israel.”
Spencer’s comments followed reports listing dozens of senior Iranian figures – including commanders and leading scientists in Tehran’s nuclear program – who were eliminated in the operation’s first wave of attacks. According to the IDF, all the scientists targeted were involved in the advanced development of a nuclear bomb – just weeks away from assembling a usable weapon.
“This wasn’t about destroying infrastructure,” Spencer explained. “It was about neutralizing the brain behind the threat – the top decision-makers, Iran’s ability to think and respond.” He added, “Israel wasn’t trying to win a battle – it simply cut off the blood flow to the entire system.”
Known for his unconventional approach to analyzing modern warfare, Spencer argues that the war sets a new standard for multi-domain combat, combining advanced technologies with extensive covert operations and pinpoint intelligence use deep inside enemy territory. “The Americans learned the principle of drone warfare in Ukraine – the Israelis turned it into a doctrine. Cheap drones cleared the area in advance, and then F-35s came in with precision strikes. What happened in Iran wasn’t a technological revolution – it was a revolution in thinking.”
Beyond the strategic damage, Spencer emphasizes the psychological effect: “The moment you don’t know who’s next – you stop planning attacks and start checking the ceiling above your head. Israel created deterrence not through force – but through perception.”
Spencer is joining the JCFA at a particularly sensitive and crucial time, aiming to deepen understanding of the impact of Israeli warfare in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria – and now Iran. He is expected to publish a series of articles on modern warfare, urban combat, and the implications of the regional campaign for U.S. deterrence doctrine and Israeli national security strategy.
“The Western world can keep praying for deterrence through speeches and rhetoric,” Spencer concludes. “Or it can learn from Israel how to build real deterrence through action on the ground. The lesson here is not just military – it’s conceptual. And that needs to echo from Cairo to Washington.”
