Biden to Order US Forces to ‘Help’ IDF Build ‘Temporary’ Seaport in Gaza

By Hana Levi Julian, JEWISH PRESS                            7 March 2024

Photo Credit: Majdi Fathi/TPS

US President Joe Biden is expected to announced in his State of the Union Address on Thursday night that he will order American forces to coordinate with the Israel Defense Forces in an “emergency mission” to build a “temporary seaport” for Gaza.

The temporary port is intended to open a maritime route for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Cyprus, an option that has been discussed for several months. There is no indication that the US will use the port to allow the Gazans to escape from Gaza, and it appears that for now, the US plans to continue leaving the Gazans trapped there, as Egypt has been doing along its shared border at Rafah.

The decision to build the port was made in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Gaza’s civilians and not the Hamas terrorist operatives who have consistently hijacked humanitarian aid trucks and stolen the supplies as soon as they enter the enclave.

“There are no limits — no limits — on the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the Gaza Strip,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy told reporters on Wednesday. “I repeat, none. In fact, Israel is encouraging donor states to send as much food, water, medicine and shelter equipment as they wish and we will facilitate its entry into the Gaza Strip,” Levy said.

“More food trucks are now entering the Gaza Strip than before the war,” he pointed out.

However, as has been seen repeatedly in videos on social media, once the aid enters Gaza the trucks are hijacked by Hamas operatives who then steal the supplies for the terrorist organization, thus depriving Gaza civilians of the aid they were intended to received. What isn’t stolen by Hamas is looted by others who then sell the supplies in the marketplace, often for exorbitant amounts, to the civilians who should have been the recipients, gratis.

Officials said Thursday on a call with reporters that the US would work with the United Nations and other humanitarian aid partners to distribute aid across Gaza once it reaches the seaport.

A senior administration official said the US worked “very closely with the Israelis in developing this initiative.”

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen traveled to Cyprus in December (2023) to work out a deal for a maritime corridor from the island nation to Gaza that would replace the need to transport goods through land crossings with Israel.

At the time, Israel’s foreign ministry called it “an important step on the way to an economic disengagement from the Gaza Strip.”

It’s not really a new idea.

In 2017, then-Transport and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz (Israel’s current foreign minister) proposed that Israel build an artificial island off the Gaza coast with a seaport and electricity and water facilities, to be connected to the enclave via a heavily secured bridge.

The project was seen as a way to complete Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, which took place in 2005 with the expulsion of 22 Israeli communities from the Gaza region of Gush Katif and from northern Samaria. It was believed by Katz and a number of top security officials that the harbor island would finally complete the removal of Israel’s responsibility for the enclave.

Katz proposed that funding for the project, estimated at the time to cost about $5 billion, be provided by international donations.

The project was ultimately shelved, however, due to opposition from then-Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

A source in Washington also said Biden’s State of the Union address was to include a pledge by the president to help Israel fight Lebanon’s Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, but without American boots on the ground.

March 8, 2024 | 6 Comments »

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6 Comments / 6 Comments

  1. @Michael Except for all the weapons sales.

    “Where does Middle East get their weapons?
    Reverse leverage encapsulates the current predicament that the United States is experiencing in the Middle East. The United States remains the dominant weapons merchant for the Middle East, and arms sales represent a central component of America’s hegemonic presence in the region.Aug 11, 2023”

    https://www.cato.org/commentary/many-arms-little-influence-middle-east#:~:text=Reverse%20leverage%20encapsulates%20the%20current,hegemonic%20presence%20in%20the%20region.

    I’m reminded of:

    Nasrudin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was becoming visibly more and more prosperous. Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs offices met him, years later. “You can tell me now, Nasrudin,” he said.“Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?”

    “Donkeys,” said Nasrudin.

    https://philipchircop.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/smuggling-donkeys/

    I remember this tee shirt slogan from back in the day.

    “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber” 😀

  2. Israel is turning into a “Forever War”; and with the US sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, there is no reason for the us to intervene there.

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  3. Judging from the apparent criteria for leadership in Israel, I propose that the most suitable individuals Israel could select would be either Felix or myself, since we’ve been wrong about nearly everything for most of our lives. 😀

  4. Eureka! :

    Man-Made Gaza Island for PA Port
    Israel and the Palestinian Authority discuss building air and seaports on a man-made island off Gaza while excluding Hamas, Israel TV reports.
    Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
    Published: Mar 29, 2011, 9:17 PM (GMT+2)
    Updated: 9:17 PM
    PA Arabs
    Shimon Peres
    Gaza Region

    Israel and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority have discussed building air and seaports on a man-made island off Gaza which would exclude Hamas, according to Israel television Channel 2. The government has not commented on the report.

    The idea has been discussed for the past two months among senior officials and has won wide support, Channel 2 added. The proposed two-acre man-made island would give PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas complete control over land and sea imports and exports, while keeping Hamas-controlled Gaza out of the picture. How that control would be defended was not mentioned.

    The idea of man-made islands in the Mediterranean Sea was proposed by President Shimon Peres four years ago.

    “We must invest in the sea, and stretch our western border in that direction by building artificial islands,” he said at a 2007 conference.

    Separate ideas proposed by other officials were to build an international airport a quarter-mile offshore from north Tel Aviv and to build between one and five islands along the central Israel coast between Bat Yam and Netanya as a way of alleviating central Israel’s land shortage problem.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/143227

  5. “Palestinians to Rebuild Gaza Seaport in Latest Peace Move
    Date posted: February 18, 2005
    By Anton La Guardia

    Palestinians will be allowed to rebuild their sea port in Gaza in a move to create a national symbol and loosen Israel’s grip on the territory after the Jewish state withdraws its soldiers and settlers this summer.”

    http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=6681&CategoryId=5