Biden’s Gaza pier: Another Abbey Gate in the making?

During President Biden’s State of the Union address last Thursday, he announced, “I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast.” 

Intended to accommodate large vessels carrying food, water, medicine and tents, the pier would be constructed without  U.S. “boots on the ground,” he added.

Constructing and securing the pier will be a considerable undertaking, with or without U.S. boots on the ground. Although well-intentioned from a humanitarian standpoint, the pier is likely to create more problems than solutions.

U.S. European and Central Commands are already decisively engaged in Ukraine and the Middle East. Building a vulnerable pier is not the best course of action. Biden’s decision therefore looks like a political response to garner votes from Muslim and progressive voters in Michigan and Minnesota, not an answer to problems in the region. 

The pier will also present a new target for Iranian-backed proxies in Gaza and the West Bank, including Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. The pier will have to be defended from mortar, rocket, aerial drone and unmanned surface vehicle attacks. And some nation or coalition force will have to secure it from a multitude of threats.

It will also need to be protected from desperate, displaced Palestinians gathering at the distribution points on a daily basis — possibly even attempting to storm the pier when ships dock. The crowds will likely become Hamas targets as well, creating the same target-rich environment that a suicide bomber took advantage of at Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate in Afghanistan in August 2021, killing 13 American service members and 170 Afghans.

Carving out a safe zone in a combat zone is not a good strategy. Hamas terrorists have already repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to place Palestinian civilians between themselves and the Israel Defense Forces — in harm’s way. 

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is bigger than Israel. The Egyptian border remains sealed for all intents and purposes. Humanitarian convoys entering the strip are often hijacked by Hamas or attacked and looted by desperate Palestinians.  

Chaos ensued at a food distribution point in Gaza City on March 1, when IDF soldiers allegedly shot into crowds as desperate Palestinians surged forward when aid trucks arrived. The following day, an Egyptian truck driver was killed and his aid truck looted by a violent mob on Al-Rashid Street in Gaza. 

Distribution of humanitarian aid is still the issue. The mode of transportation that delivers the aid is secondary. Putting more Americans at risk is not the solution.

Can we really trust employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to ensure the aid does not end up in the hands of Hamas? Who is going to vet the employees? Who will ensure that aid gets to the displaced Palestinians instead of the Hamas terrorists? Who will ultimately be responsible for the operation?

In January, Israeli officials presented evidence they said tied UNRWA workers in Gaza to violence during the Hamas-led attack on Israel. Hundreds more were found to have close associations with Hamas. As a result, the UN terminated nine out of its 12 UNRWA staff over the allegations and vowed to hold its employees accountable. Is this really the best course of action, or simply a reaction for the sake of appearing to do something?

The U.S. already struggles to provide adequate force protection for its own remote military bases throughout the region, which have sustained more than 170 attacks since Oct. 17. The deadliest of those attacks was directed at Tower 22 in Jordan, which resulted in the deaths of three U.S. service members. 

Those attack numbers do not include Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and U.S. Navy vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The latest took place on Mar. 9; U.S. and Coalition forces reportedly downed at least 28 uncrewed aerial vehicles in response.

Nonetheless the wheels are already in motion to create this new vulnerability. The U.S. Army Vessel General Frank S. Besson departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, on Mar. 9 for the Eastern Mediterranean, carrying the equipment necessary to build the temporary pier. Despite the President’s assurance that no U.S. boots will be on the ground, American service members will be directly involved in the construction and security of the pier. 

Building the aircraft while in flight is generally a bad technique, especially with all the bad actors intent on killing Americans and harming Gazans. 

Security is essential, and for now, not locked in. According to Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, it will take “over 1,000 U.S. forces to participate in building” the temporary pier. “As far as the timeframe…several weeks, likely up to 60 days in order to deploy the forces and construct the causeway and the pier.” 

That sounds a lot like “boots on the ground,” doesn’t it?

As former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Gordon S. Sullivan has said, “Hope is not a method.” Hoping Hamas does not target the pier is a dereliction of duty. But that is exactly what Ryder tried to sell reporters on March 8, when he said, “If Hamas truly believes that the people, the Palestinian people are suffering, then why would they want to take this aid and use it for themselves to support their terrorist organization? Or do they truly care about the Palestinian people and want this aid to get to them? So, one would hope that this aid will get to the people that are most deserving and in need.”

Neither the General nor the White House seem to know this enemy. They would do well to brush up on the sage advice of Sun Tzu in “The Art of War”: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

They apparently have not learned a thing from interactions with the Taliban since 2021, nor from the actions of Hamas since Oct. 7. If they had, they would understand that there can be no more Abbey Gates. Yet here we likely are, witnessing one in the making.

Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.