By John F. Di Leo, Opinion Contributor
When your enemy’s program fails, just as you predicted, it can sometimes be a moment of pride, especially when you were the only one who called it from the beginning.
The story of the temporary pier is not such an example.
Virtually every onlooker to the right of the far Left recognized from the start that the temporary pier announced in Joe Biden’s State of Disunion address would be a failure. It didn’t take any great analysis or inside knowledge to know that this was an awful idea.
But few suspected it would be quite as disastrous as it turned out.
The Israel–Hamas war, decades overdue, that finally began when Hamas committed their unprecedented day of atrocities on October 7, 2023 has now been going on for eight months.
Throughout Hamas’ vicious rule over the so-called Palestinians of Gaza, Hamas has used their power to keep their fellow Gazans suffering, in a cruel manipulation of global public opinion. As tragic as all wars are, the one positive in this one looked to be that Hamas’ tyranny over their fellow Arabs, as well as their constant attacks on Israel, would finally come to an end.
We still look forward to that day. Whenever this war finally ends, Israel will be able to free the decent people of Gaza, whatever percentage of the population that may be, from their homicidal overlords.
Since taking control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has weaponized the entire operational structure of the region in its effort to destroy the country of Israel. Hamas spent money building war tunnels; Hamas used irrigation pipe to make rockets. Hamas hoarded food to feed its leaders at the expense of the civilians; Hamas used the billions in global aid cash to make its rulers the wealthy owners of distant mansions from Qatar to Switzerland.
The nature of a complete war enables Israel to justifiably put the region under siege, starving Hamas out, so that, hopefully, the Gazans themselves would finally overthrow the terrorist network that has held them prisoner all these years and get a fresh chance to attempt a decent life.
But this war happened to take place while the United States was under the illegitimate rule of the modern Democrats, a subset of the American political sphere that neither understands history nor desires worthwhile solutions. Wedded to the traditional Foggy Bottom mentality of preserving the status quo at all costs, the Biden-Harris regime has spent the entire war playing to both sides, paying lip service to our alliance with Israel, while simultaneously holding them back, putting every impediment they could think of in Israel’s way, with one goal: to enable Hamas to survive.
And the biggest such impediment was to be the temporary pier.
Israel has partnered with Egypt to ensure that all humanitarian aid for Gaza goes through land passages controlled by Egypt. All sides can trust Egypt, being a nation of Muslim Arabs that is nonetheless committed to fighting terrorism. Throughout the war, Egypt has done a wonderful job, ensuring that only real humanitarian aid, not instruments of war, pass into Gaza on their watch.
The Biden-Harris regime set out to sabotage that plan.
The Biden-Harris regime has admitted to spending $320 million in US taxpayer dollars so far (so the true figure is likely much higher), constructing and staffing a seaborne structure off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean. The plan for such a structure was that other countries, other sources, would deliver shipments to the pier, free of the Egyptians’ careful security checks. Shipments of unknown origin and unknown content would then be able to pass into Gaza to replenish Hamas.
It was rather like creating an extra security line at the airport, one with no screening machinery or security personnel at all, just baggage handlers who belong to the same club as the terrorists.
Following weeks of embarrassing delays, the pier was finally constructed, only to find that it had not been designed for seas or oceans at all and could not handle the tiny waves commonly found in the Mediterranean. Perhaps it would have functioned well in a large swimming pool or local duck pond, but it couldn’t handle the purpose for which $320 million was spent on it.
As the structure broke apart, immediately upon installation, different multimillion dollar sections of the pier and causeway floated off into the Mediterranean, crashing into boats and getting tangled up in cables, to the delight of newsmen and to the absolute joy of America’s enemies.
The project is now on hold; as the regime tries to decide whether to try again or slink away in the hope that the debacle is forgotten as soon as possible.
Already the narrative has changed, depending on who is reviewing the story.
From the perspective of the American budget, this $320 million is a drop in the bucket. Our federal government wastes more than that every day, on a myriad of other foolish programs. But few are this high profile; few are this shockingly embarrassing. This story deserves its own entry in the long and tragic history of America’s crippling National Debt.
From the perspective of America’s global reputation as a world power, this project is a new low. Just look at the context; the country that once won World Wars through the exercise of a superpower’s might and ability is now brought to heel by 3-foot waves and a food pantry project gone wrong.
From the perspective of foreign policy, the Biden-Harris regime is exposed. It has proven duplicitous in regard to our most important ally in the Middle East. If at least the floating soup kitchen had worked, the feel-good vibes of their best intentions might have caused the world to forget the road to hell that it was meant to pave. But we have only the drawbacks to show for it, and none of the intended benefits.
What this embarrassing tale gives the world is a campaign issue – as if we needed another – a clear example of the utter incompetence of the entire Biden-Harris regime. This was a team project; all the agencies involved – military, state, transportation – are rendered uniformly inept when under the control of the modern American Democrat. There’s no single scapegoat to throw under the bus here; only a huge committee could mess things up this badly.
But what is to be the future now? What’s next?
Israel and Egypt will continue doing what they have done all along, carefully ensuring that only clean, properly vetted shipments of food and water enter at the land checkpoints.
And in the end, the future is up to the people of Gaza. Will they do the right thing: overthrow their overlords, give up Hamas, and attempt a new relationship with Israel based on mutual respect, and declare an end to the longstanding calls for genocide that have been the standard for Hamas?
As long as the people of Gaza chant “from the river to the sea,” as long as they refuse to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist or the right of Jews to live, this situation will, and must, remain miserable.
It is the people of Gaza, in the end, who must acknowledge reality and choose the path of humanity, in order for their people to progress.
Until they do that, their very way of life will be represented by the temporary pier itself: empty, unstable, underhanded, misguided, and broken.
Copyright 2024 John F Di Leo
