The U.S. military began building the floating pier in Gaza in March. At that time, Joe Biden was in deep trouble with his radical left supporters because some Gazans were starving and Israel had slowed aid to a crawl.
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No one ever gets around to explaining why Israel won’t speed up aid to Gaza civilians. Maybe it has something to do with weapons and explosives being found in aid trucks that need to be thoroughly searched. At any rate, Gazans are dying of starvation, so Biden decided to “do something about the problem.”
In this case, he ordered the U.S. military to build a floating pier off the coast of Gaza. For the handsome sum of $230 million, Joe Biden bought himself a floating white elephant.
From the time the pier became operational on May 17, completely foreseeable problems that were unforeseen by the Biden administration have plagued its operation. Incredibly, in the month the pier has been operating, it’s unloaded food aid for only 10 days.
First, there was the looting. Trucks rolling off the pier onto the causeway leading to the warehouse where food would be stored until distributed were mobbed by desperate people.
Part of the problem, says the UN, is they didn’t plan for the security of the trucks. “We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” said the UN official.
Yes, yes, capital idea.
The pier’s operation has been a clusterfark from the beginning.
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NEW Lifespan of Biden’s $320 million pier:
May 17: Biden’s pier opens
May 21: “No aid from pier has been delivered to broader population”
May 28: Pier ops suspended after piece breaks off
June 8: U.S. resumes pier deliveries
TODAY: Pier to be torn down due to rough seas pic.twitter.com/Y9ATqyUOLU
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) June 14, 2024
On Tuesday, rather than face the additional embarrassment of the pier floating away again due to rough seas, the military decided to move the pier back to where it was constructed; Ashdod, Israel.
The decision “is not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the temporary pier can continue to deliver aid in the future,” the U.S. Central Command said.
Part of the problem is that, in this case, “Made in America” leaves much to be desired.
Exclusive video of Biden’s shoddy Gaza Pier (before it broke into pieces): pic.twitter.com/Xqyqjt7Ru4
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) June 14, 2024
The pier “is not working, at least not for Palestinians,” Stephen Semler, a co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, wrote in an essay for Responsible Statecraft, a Quincy Institute publication. Mr. Semler argued that the pier had succeeded only in providing “humanitarian cover” for the Biden administration’s policy of supporting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
U.S. officials say that in addition to delivering aid with many of the land routes closed, the pier also threw a spotlight on the urgent need to provide more humanitarian assistance overall to Gaza. But the project’s challenges have frustrated and disappointed top Biden administration officials.
Despite the weather-related delays and other problems, there has been one bright spot: The pier has not yet been hit in an attack.
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The pier hasn’t been attacked because it’s been out of service far more often than it’s been operational.
Besides, why waste good ordinance on a pier that’s self-destructing?
In sum: We just wasted over $320 million dollars on ANOTHER plan that everyone said wasn’t going to work when we proposed it.
— Squiffy (@Squiffy1025) June 17, 2024
Really the pier is a microcosm of the entire Biden administration
— ms.schumacher (@msschumacher1) June 17, 2024
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The controversy that erupted, mostly on social media, about the pier being used in the Israeli hostage rescue operation has yet to be put to rest. Did the U.S.-built pier aid the Israelis in any way in rescuing the hostages?
I certainly hope so. Just don’t tell Hamas that.
Last week, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, denounced “inaccurate social media allegations” that the pier was part of the rescue, but said that “there was some type of helicopter activity” near the pier during the operation.
Arlan Fuller, the director of emergency response with Project Hope, said the image of “the helicopter taking off from the beach really was contravening to the overall use of the humanitarian space.” He added that the image “muddies the waters” and could put humanitarian workers on the pier in greater risk.
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No, Joe Biden shouldn’t get credit for this “humanitarian impulse.” The pier had nothing to do with altruism and everything to do with Biden’s re-election. The $230 million (or $320 million, depending on the source) pier is another in a long line of failures of the Biden administration.
