“Israel Alone” Fighting Hamas in Gaza backed by Iran?

Not so, say Majority of Americans.

By Jerry Gordon and Brig. General (US Army Retired) John Adams

Jerry Gordon, a Senior Editor of The New English Review, invited retired US Army Brig. General John Adams to discuss Israel Defense Force military doctrine and strategic options in the conduct of the Jewish state’s civilizational war with Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. He addresses the conflict given his extensive background as a 30-year veteran of combat, staff and international military diplomatic assignments and post-service informal analysis and discussions with former Senior IDF commanders.

Watch the YouTube interview with Brig. Gen. (US Army retired) John Adams with following transcript.

Background of General John Adams

John Adams retired as a Brigadier General from the U.S. Army in September 2007, after more than 30 years of active-duty service. His final military assignment was Deputy United States Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee in Belgium. John is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm (1991), where he earned the Bronze Star Medal, of Operation Guardian Assistance in Rwanda (1996), and served throughout the Balkans from 1998-2003. He served as a military attaché with the U.S. Embassies in South Korea, Croatia, Belgium, and Rwanda. In 2004, he served on temporary duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was deployed outside the United States for eighteen of his thirty years of active-duty service, including duty in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

He was stationed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and participated in disaster recovery operations at the crash site.

During the past five years, he has participated in unofficial fact-finding missions in Israel, Egypt, Turkey, the Balkans, and Cuba. He has close business relationships with retired officers of the Israeli Defense Forces, several NATO Allies, and is a strong supporter of the U.S. alliance with the State of Israel and NATO.

 Among the major findings in this wide-ranging discussion are:

• Failure of Biden Administration to veto Algerian-sponsored Ramadan cease fire Security Council Administration amounts to a betrayal of Israel that has had bi-partisan support from US Administrations since 1948. We must stand for Israel fighting Hamas Radical Islamic Extremism backed by Iran.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu was justified in pulling back, temporarily, a Defense and Security team from meeting with Biden Administration counterparts. Unjustified Administration suborns sovereignty of trusted ally in combating global jihadism.
• Vice President Harris role as poseur threatening Israel with “consequences” if it undertakes IDF concluding actions against Hamas and leadership in Rafah was generated by political concerns over Muslim protests in swing states, Michigan and Minnesota. Despite her comments, the Pentagon has not restricted weekly deliveries of weapons to the IDF.
• In contrast, John Spencer, Director of Urban Warfare Center at the West Point Institute for Modern Warfare has told Prime Minister that IDF is doing historic fighting radical extremism depredations of Hamas in Gaza by adhering to established Israeli military doctrine minimizing, where possible, civilian casualties and infrastructure. That doctrine is based on biblical principles emphasizing “chesed, loving kindness and care for human life.” This is in sharp contrast to Shariah Law Islamist doctrine embodied in the Hamas Charter of 1988 with the objective to kill Israelis, Jews and other non-believers and fellow Gazans who they treat as Human Shields
• The Economist March 23-29, 2024 Edition cover and editorial suggesting Israel is being isolated by pursuing its objective of destroying Hamas in Gaza is disputed by US polls. World media editorial and policy elites have isolated Israel from its inception in 1948, the Suez Crisis of 1956, The June Six Days of War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and now the latest Gaza Operation Iron Swords in 2024. The US polling results indicate, with a few exceptions, the majority of Americans support Israel military actions after the barbaric Hamas pogrom of October 7^th. The proportion of approval varies from lower responses among Gen Z respondents to near unanimous support in older respondents.  We noted the comments of Alan Dershowitz, a strong Israel supporter and formerly committed Democrat suggesting he might change his vote in the upcoming November 2024 US national elections.
• IDF operations in Al-Shifa Hospital in central Gaza and Hamad in Kahn Yunis have revealed the resilience of Hamas fighting units and the emerging success of the intelligence led strategy incorporating interrogations of hundreds of Hamas and PIJ prisoners by Israeli Shabak and Military Intelligence units. Thus, US credibility advising IDF operations is low, given IDF adaptive strategy to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas, while sparing as much as possible, civilians from becoming Human Shields. That bodes well for prospective IDF operations in Rafah seeking to achieve the twin objectives of destroying Hamas and PIJ and for the release of Israeli hostages.
• Successive cease fire negotiations for release of Israeli hostages and exchange of Palestinian prisoners with Qatar as intermediary have broken down given the Emirate’s hosting of well-funded Hamas billionaire leaders and international support for the antisemitic Muslim Brotherhood. This despite US support for Qatar as “an important non-NATO ally” from whom the US leases the large Al Udeid Airbase for Middle East operations. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who visited Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran to thank him for backing the terror group’s resistance in Gaza for what they call the “Al Aqsa Storm.”
• The US, UK-led international naval and air coalition, while laudatory, is not deterring the Iran-backed Houthi proxy control over the international maritime choke point of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden approaches. The coalition is engaged in reactive “tit for tat” exchanges with the Yemen-based terrorist army. What is required is over-whelming force to cut off the source, Iran that uses the Houthi, Hezbollah, Syrian and Iraqi Shia terrorist proxies to conduct a penalty – free war against Israel and the US and allied Central Command forces in the Middle East. That requires, as Israel has demonstrated air attacks on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cadres in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
• Two-thirds of responses to an Iranian state survey have revealed a preference for a secular government to replace the Islamic Revolutionary regime in power since 1979. This reflects the worsening economy and personal depredations of the Ayatollahs violating human rights resulting in wide ranging popular protests and imprisonment and executions. All in the face of the failure of the Obama Administration JCPOA agreement to rein in Iran’s nuclear development program while released billions in oil revenues. The Biden Administration is compounding the current dilemma by promoting the so-called Grand Bargain that includes the formation of a post Gaza War Palestinian State solution coupled with an international Arab interim force supplanting the IDF presence. The Washington, DC – based Institute for Science and International Security Director, former nuclear weapons inspector David Albright that Iran already has sufficient enriched uranium sufficient make upwards of ten plus nuclear devices.
• Israeli Middle East expert analyst, Mordechai Kedar in two Jerusalem Post articles has suggested a regime change program aimed at empowering several large minority groups in a federated state: the Azerbaijanis in northwest Iran, the Sunni Ahwaz in the oil -rich Southwest and the Baloch in Southeast currently engaged in guerrilla warfare with IRGC, and adjacent Pakistan. His proposals suggests creating a covert program by the US and western allies analogous to what British WWII war leader Winston Churchill did with the Special Operations Execute in Nazi-occupied Europe.
• The ISIS-K attack at a rock concert emporium in Moscow by alleged Tajikistan jihadis raises questions about a possible false flag operation of the Russian FSB and President Putin’s vulnerability following his sixth election as President.
• Despite heavy Russian drone and missile attacks in Ukraine, amid the unresolved US and NATO delivery of weapons, the resourceful Ukrainian technologists have launched long range air and naval drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and damaged or sank 25% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, as damaged the Kerch Bridge limiting Russian military train shipments. This raises questions about whether a stalemate may have been reached as the conflict enters its third year.