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Why do we need a floating pier in Gaza?

Published on 43 Comments on Why do we need a floating pier in Gaza?

The floating pier we built to get humanitarian aid into Gaza has had its problems. The Wall Street Journal provides some details:

The hastily constructed pier was never designed to handle the Mediterranean Sea’s rough waters.... The floating structure broke apart late last month after 10 days of operation, something defense officials privately described as all but inevitable, and some humanitarian organizations have all but given up making longer-term plans around the pier.

....Military guidance on the pier, known as Joint Logistics Over the Shore or JLOTS, says its usage is “weather-dependent,” and it can’t operate in conditions beyond sea state 3.... The Mediterranean Sea is often at sea state 4.

I'm curious. Were any of these "private" concerns made clear to President Biden and his staff before the decision was made to build the pier?

In any case, I imagine the pier will become more reliable as we get more experience with it. But issues with the aid program go way beyond a few civil engineering problems:

On Sunday, the U.N. World Food Program said it paused delivery of aid from the pier after two of its warehouses were hit by rockets during one of the deadliest days of the war.

Why is Israel shooting rockets in the vicinity of the pier and the nearby warehouses? And of course there's this:

If the pier shuts down permanently, the aid could end up being delivered by sea to the Ashdod port in Israel, and then sent along the very land routes the maritime corridor was meant to bypass.

Exactly. The pier never should have been necessary. Israel should have allowed aid into Ashdod (just north of Gaza) and then through the Erez crossing in the first place. It's only four miles of travel within Gaza from Erez to the location of the floating pier. Surely the IDF could have figured out a way to provide safe passage along that route?

I suppose they just didn't care very much.

43 thoughts on “Why do we need a floating pier in Gaza?”

  1. different_name

    Because Something Had To Be Done.

    That was Something.

    I do think it was that simple - someone in the WH noticed the starvation headlines were only popular with people who won't vote for Biden, was aware that Bibi's political survival depends on the settlers who attack aid caravans, and came up with this to shut down journalists.

    Mostly seemed to have worked for its intended purpose. Shame about the starving folks.

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    2. Salamander

      Something Had To Be Done

      Hand-wringing would have been equally effective, and a lot cheaper. Just sayin' ...

  2. pfbaker

    If the pier is built and operated by the US military, Israel can't bomb it without effectively declaring war on the United States.

    1. kahner

      you'd think that but:
      In 2002, Captain Ward Boston, JAGC, U.S. Navy, senior counsel for the Court of Inquiry, said that the Court of Inquiry's findings were intended to cover up what was a deliberate attack by Israel on a ship that the Israelis knew to be American. In 2004, in response to the publication of A. Jay Cristol's book The Liberty Incident, which Boston said was an "insidious attempt to whitewash the facts", Boston prepared and signed an affidavit in which he said that Admiral Kidd had told him that the government ordered Kidd to falsely report that the attack was a mistake, and that Boston and Kidd both believed the attack was deliberate.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

        1. kahner

          and somehow almost no one seems to even know about it. i only heard about it in the last couple years. it's insane.

  3. rick_jones

    I am not able to pass the WSJ paywall to see, but that which Kevin quoted does not say who fired the rockets.

        1. MF

          Yes. Interesting immediate assumption that Israel was shooting the rockets, especially when the vast majority of rocket use in this war has been by Hamas. Tell us you are an anti-Semite without saying you are an anti-Semite.

          In addition, Israel had no obligation to make the areas around the pier and warehouses Hamas safe zones. The US had an obligation to make sure Hamas does not use its pier for protection ACS if Hamas uses the warehouses fire protection Israel is within its rights to attack them and if necessary destroy them.

          There are no safe zones for Hamas. All members of Hamas may and must be attacked whenever and wherever they are found. The end of this for them must be death or captivity.

          1. Bardi

            "Tell us you are an anti-Semite without saying you are an anti-Semite."

            So, if I call a "Jew" a thief, after he is proved to be a thief (video or otherwise), that makes me an "anti-Semite"?

            Perhaps your mom should quit giving you drugs in your basement apartment.

            1. MF

              Nope. But lets say you have two neighborhood kids, one Jewish and one non-Jewish.

              The Jewish kids throws hardballs around a lot. The non-Jewish kid throws softballs. You walk into your house and see a broken window with a softball on your floor in the middle of the glass and you say "Why did that Jewish kid break my window?!?". Then you are an anti-Semite.

              Israel mainly uses missiles. Hamas mainly uses rockets. If rocketfire hit something it was probably Hamas.

  4. dilbert dogbert

    Tough that Biden is dealing with an election and has very little wiggle room vs a vs Israel/Hamas. If he really put the hammer down on Bibi, J Street would pull out its big guns and a tight election would be a walk away for tDrumpf. Too bad starving Palestinians are in the decision mix.
    Also the dock is a great training experience for the Navy. They did learn about what sea state the dock would withstand and the crews would get real world experience.

    2. jamesepowell

      "If he really put the hammer down on Bibi, J Street would pull out its big guns and a tight election would be a walk away for tDrumpf."

      Nobody in government wants to admit this out loud, but it's the reason for Biden's responses that make no one happy.

  5. kahner

    I'm sure they cared very much. But what they cared about was blocking aid and starving palestinians in gaza.

    2. Bardi

      Sadly, you are correct.

      Were the Ten Commandments only given to Hebrews, because Jews needed something in writing?

  6. ProbStat

    The pier -- just like the air drops -- was lipstick on a pig. It was never going to be able to fill the gaps between need and supply, given Israel's official limit on trucks going in ... and the unofficial blockades by Israeli citizens that the government allows to happen.

    We were covering up for the genocide being committed by our dear friend, Israel.

  7. D_Ohrk_E1

    Of the few times when I'm cynical, this is one of them. I've always thought this was just performative politics to make it look like Biden was doing something solely for the Palestinian people. Israel and Egypt are some of the top recipients of US aid. What's all that money for if we can't get them to at least support humanitarian causes that they should be supporting in the first place?

  9. Traveller

    The Optics were and are wonderful...any Palestinian walking the beach could see positive proof the Americans were trying...and Kevin should know this...the pictures were great!

    I do not see this as useless as many do, 1,000 Tons of aid was delivered every 48 hours the pier was in operation. And will start delivering again..Best Wishes, Traveller

    Edit: 492 metric tons have been delivered via this pier....food people can eat, medicines, everything....It is true there has not been delivered a golden unicorn....but you have to take what you can get.

  10. pjcamp1905

    "Why is Israel shooting rockets in the vicinity of the pier and the nearby warehouses? "

    You have to ask? Reread the bit about Ashdod. Israel is using starvation as a weapon. Firing rockets around the pier insures no one can use it.

    BTW, in World War II we built temporary piers that could survive the Atlantic. I guess no one remembered to write down how to do that?

    1. painedumonde

      They did during the D-Day operation but the Mulburry Harbor was eventually enclosed with a breakwater of scuttled ships to protect the pier. Eventually cassions, spuds, and other materials were used to make the pier almost permanent. Another pier lasted a few weeks but was destroyed by a storm mid June. Anyway LST's and other craft landed about 50% of supply tonnage before a deep water port was opened.

      1. Bardi

        Agree.

        I have supported LSTs since the question first came up. If we could not do it with US labeled equipment, I am certain we could come up with some "chartered" LSTs, especially for speed and to start.

        1. TheMelancholyDonkey

          Where are you going to find private "LSTs" to charter? The US Navy is pretty much the only entity on the planet that has that sort capability. And the USN has vastly less capacity to do so than they did in June, 1944.

  12. painedumonde

    Kabuki. Expensive kabuki. The problem is the bombardment and the restriction of movement. And the coming occupation...

  13. rick_jones

    Were any of these "private" concerns made clear to President Biden and his staff before the decision was made to build the pier?

    Suppose for a moment that he was indeed told. Do we think he would have said "Oh, nevermind." ? As others have said, Something had to be done, and short of sending-in the Marines, or Biden cutting-off Israel and handing the United States to Donald Trump, that seems to have been about the only something available to him. Kobyashi Maru.

  15. Jimm

    It is a sad commentary that this temporary pier is even needed when our so-called ally controls all the normal transportation lines.

  17. Special Newb

    The interesting thing about the pier is someone in the government sabotaged it. It's army. The Seabees weren't involved at all. They would have knocked it out fast and sturdy.

  18. yonatan

    Two things:
    1. Israel has opened the port of Ashdod to aid. It's been open for months, apparently: https://www.timesofisrael.com/humanitarian-aid-enters-gaza-strip-via-ashdod-port-for-the-first-time-says-idf/
    I'm not sure to what extent it's being used, and April was pretty late, but it's there.
    2. Who hit the warehouses? Everyone here is assuming it's Israel, but I usually associate "rockets" with Palestinian terrorists. I did a search and read a couple of articles about this, and no one says. I don't have access to the WSJ.

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