The Biden Administration’s $230 million pier, built off the coast of Israel to provide support to Gaza, has been shut down by the U.S. military due to ongoing complications and an extremely dangerous environment.
As reported by Fox News, the pier was plagued with problems during and after its construction, including aid supplies being stolen and being damaged by bad weather.
“The maritime storage mission involving the pier is complete, so there’s no more need to use the pier, particularly because we’re able to implement a more sustaining pathway, to Ashdod,” said Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command, on Wednesday.
Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) slammed the entirety of the pier’s existence in a statement following the announcement that it would be shut down.
“This chapter might be over in President Biden’s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not. The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” said Senator Wicker. “I have been calling for an end to this election-year gimmick since its primetime inception at the State of the Union.”
“While I am glad it has finally concluded, we cannot buy back the $230 million needlessly spent, and significant questions remain about the Biden administration’s poor planning for this mission,” Wicker added.
Biden first promised to build the temporary pier during his State of the Union address in March, for the purpose of providing humanitarian aid to Gaza amidst the ongoing war between Israel and the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. The construction was completed on May 9th, but problems continued. The United Nations ceased further distribution of supplies from the pier in early June, claiming that a “thorough assessment of the security situation” was necessary in order to “ensure the safety of our staff and our partners.”
With the unusually high cost of $230 million to build it, Senator Wicker warned at the time that it would be a “dangerous effort with marginal benefit.”
Congressman Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) expressed a similar sentiment, stating that the pier project was “unnecessarily putting our people in harm’s way.”
“It’s costing a lot,” Waltz continued. “It’s pulling assets that should be used elsewhere, and I just don’t think it’s going to accomplish anything near what he’s promised.”
Biden’s promise surrounding the pier came as the Democratic Party faced, and continues to face, widespread internal divisions over the issue of Israel. While most party leaders still support Israel on an institutional level, a massive portion of the Left’s progressive, grassroots base is opposed to Israel and even supports Hamas, denouncing Israel as “colonizers” in the so-called land of “Palestine.” These tensions may reach a head in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where rioters have vowed to disrupt the proceedings ahead of the Democratic Party’s nomination of its presidential and vice presidential candidates.
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