U.S. Ships Depart for Gaza

Happy Wednesday! In another unwelcome blast from the past, mysterious monoliths are back! A big metal pillar—similar to those placed around the world in 2020—was found in the middle of nowhere in Powys, Wales, yesterday. So far this year has brought us reruns of the Super Bowl matchup, the presidential race, and these strange structures. What’s next?

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the U.S. would send a $300 million military aid package—including ammunition, artillery rounds, anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-tank weapons—to Ukraine, the first such delivery since December, when federal funding for Ukraine aid ran out. The package will be funded with savings Pentagon accountants were able to redesignate from contracts that came in under-budget—though senior defense officials told reporters Tuesday the replenishment fund is $10 billion overdrawn. A supplemental bill for Ukraine funding remains stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a wave of drone attacks in Russia overnight Monday, hitting Russian energy infrastructure as Ukraine-backed Russian exiles crossed the border into southern Russia and engaged in skirmishes in the region, as they have done in the past. 
• Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned late Monday, saying he and his government will serve as caretakers until a transitional council is established. The announcement from Henry—who is in Puerto Rico after being prevented from returning to his country by mounting gang violence—follows a meeting of regional leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Jamaica. Blinken on Monday pledged an additional $100 million to the international police effort headed by Kenya, bringing the total U.S. contribution to $300 million. Kenyan officials said Tuesday that the international mission will not proceed until a new government forms in Haiti.
• Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday launched a bid to become the next secretary-general of NATO, joining outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the race to replace Jens Stoltenberg as the leader of the defensive alliance when his term expires later this year. The 32 NATO member nations will have to come to a consensus to choose the next leader.
• Former special counsel Robert Hur, who oversaw the investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Hur defended both his decision not to charge the former president with any crime and his assertion in the final report that the president is a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” In his testimony, during which he faced pressure from Republicans and Democrats, Hur denied that his report “exonerated” Biden while also refusing to characterize the president as “senile.”
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the consumer price index—a measure of inflation—ticked up in February, increasing 0.4 percent from the previous month and 3.2 percent year-over-year, compared to the 3.1 percent increase in prices in the year that ended in January. The higher-than-expected figure follows the Federal Reserve’s decision to delay cutting interest rates at its last meeting. 
• The New York Times reported on Monday that a six-week Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audit of production on Boeing’s 737 Max jet—initiated after a door plug in the fuselage of one Alaska Airlines jet blew out mid-flight in early January—revealed almost 100 instances of non-compliance with quality control requirements. Of the 89 product audits, which examine the production process, the company reportedly failed 33. 
• GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado announced on Tuesday that he would be retiring early from Congress, vacating his seat at the end of next week rather than serving the rest of his term. Buck had already said he did not plan to run for reelection, and his early departure will reduce the Republican majority in the House to only two seats.
• Both Biden and former President Donald Trump clinched their parties’ nominations Tuesday night after securing the requisite number of delegates. Their respective victories—which came after each won primary elections in Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington—sets up a rematch of the 2020 election.

Pier One

Four ships loaded with construction materials and roughly 100 U.S. troops departed Virginia’s Joint Base Langley-Eustis Tuesday, en route to the Gaza Strip. As the vessels pulled away, headed to build a temporary pier on the coast of the war-torn enclave, John Williams’ “Imperial March” blared over one ship’s loudspeakers.

The mission to build a temporary pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean shore began just days after President Joe Biden announced the plan during Thursday’s State of the Union address. The administration estimated that nearly 2 million meals could be delivered to Palestinian civilians per day as part of an effort to dramatically increase the inflow of humanitarian aid. But despite promises from the president that the operation would require no U.S. boots on the ground, concerns persist that this mission could put American troops in harm’s way—and escalate an already tense situation.

Five months of war in Gaza have led to a humanitarian crisis in the territory. The United Nations said in February that famine was “imminent” in the region barring changes, and a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry on Wednesday said that at least 20 people have died of starvation. Though Israel is allowing aid into the region, there have been delays and difficulties in distributing those supplies to civilians. In late February, dozens of Palestinians were killed as a convoy of trucks attempted to deliver materials in northern Gaza. Israel reported that the majority of the civilians were killed in a stampede or run over by fleeing aid truck drivers, while Hamas officials said that Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd.

Foreign entities have since increased their aid shipments to Gaza as a result. The U.S. military, in partnership with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, has initiated airdrops into Gaza, delivering an eighth round of food and water Tuesday. Belgian, Egyptian, and French planes have also parachuted aid into Gaza in recent days. On Tuesday, a ship carrying food aid—coordinated by World Central Kitchen and Spanish charity Open Arms, and supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—departed Cyprus for Gaza to test the possibility of delivering additional aid by sea.

During his State of the Union address last week, Biden announced that the U.S. would step up its humanitarian efforts in Gaza. “Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters,” he said. 

The mission will be led by the 7th Transportation Brigade from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, utilizing the Pentagon’s Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) capability. Under the operation, aid will be offloaded from commercial vessels to an offshore floating pier, where Navy support vessels and barges would then pick up and transfer the supplies to an 1,800-foot-long, two-lane floating causeway. Then the aid will be transported to land and distributed in Gaza by U.S. partners on the ground. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder last week identified Cyprus as a place aid could initially be delivered, loaded onto ships, then ferried to the pier. U.S. troops will reportedly not be involved in transporting materials onshore.

How can such a massive undertaking take place with U.S. military personnel stepping foot in Gaza, as the president claimed? “The ability to do this without putting forces on the ground is due to the fact that the causeway is essentially—it’s modular, built at sea, and then essentially driven into the ground from off shore,” Ryder told reporters on Friday. “We’ll be working with partners in the region to […] be on the receiving end of that and to work through the security details, but at no time will we require U.S. forces to actually go on the ground.” He explained that the project would require roughly 1,000 U.S. troops and approximately 60 days to complete.

U.S. ships carrying materials and troops may have embarked for Gaza just days after Biden’s announcement, but sending them was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. “Having a sea base point of import and export for Gaza that is subject to strict security controls, inspection regimes, both by Israelis and potentially the Cypriots, has been an idea under discussion for the long-term of postwar Gaza for some time,” Richard Goldberg, a former National Security Council official and senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told TMD. Israeli officials have so far responded positively to Biden’s announcement, though they have not yet confirmed the president’s assertion that Israel would run security on the ground.

The hope is that the pier increases the volume of aid that can be delivered to Gazans—but Goldberg warns that the plan, as currently conceived, might not greatly improve the current situation. “The problem that the president faces in trying to force the pier to work—before you have a plan for distribution and security on the ground when you reach the port—is that this can very quickly go sideways,” he said. “It doesn’t appear on its face, based on everything we see, the number of ground entry points into Gaza, the available capacity to dramatically increase the number of trucks going in, that there is a need for sea-based delivery of humanitarian assistance. And it does not appear on its face that sea-based delivery of humanitarian assistance will fix any of the bottlenecks that exist already for ground-based delivery of humanitarian assistance with respect to distribution inside Gaza.”

Furthermore, multiple details in the mission remain unclear. While Ryder stressed that there would be no boots “on the ground,” for example, it’s not yet clear exactly how close to shore American troops will come. “That’s a valid question for DOD to have to detail more than its current outline,” Goldberg said.

And while not outright dismissing the threat of Hamas interference in the mission, Ryder appeared to pressure the terror group not to disrupt the flow of aid. “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?” he said Friday. “Or do they truly care about the Palestinian people and want this aid to get to them?”

But Goldberg pointed out that Hamas has repeatedly shown a willingness to disrupt aid distribution. “Hamas’ obvious tactics so far of trying to either attack convoys, divert convoys … none of these concerns are addressed or ameliorated because you announced you’re going to start bringing in a lot of aid by sea.” He also noted that long-range drones launched from Lebanon and Syria could likely reach the Gaza coast. This could pose a significant threat to American troops—though Goldberg believes that the ramifications make an attack unlikely. “[An attack] would be such an escalation by Hezbollah or Iranian-backed militias, it would provoke an overwhelming response that [Secretary-General of Hezbollah] Hassan Nasrallah would not want to entertain,” he said. “That is not to say you shouldn’t rule it out, and you should ask the question, is your force protection posture at the pier going to account for counter-drone defense?” 

Despite the risks, Goldberg did note the benefits—which extend beyond increased aid delivery capabilities. “If this can somehow work, and be established in the next short few weeks, and there’s actually a secure way to get this [aid] in and control distribution that gets to the places where you want aid to get to, it could, ironically, prove to be a helpful step in proving Israel’s case for going forward with a Rafah operation,” he said. Biden warned over the weekend that an Israeli military advance into Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, would represent a red line. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that, despite U.S. opposition, he’s still considering such a move to eliminate “Hamas’ last stronghold.” On Tuesday, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned Israel against moving into Rafah without a “credible plan” to protect the estimated 1.5 million civilians sheltering there.

The causeway could serve an integral role in that plan, should Israel push south. “You could see the pier becoming medical and humanitarian aid transport conduit to exactly that area,” Goldberg told TMD, while noting that the temporary pier is, in all likelihood, an imperfect solution. “Would it be better to wait on this until Hamas has completely fallen in Gaza and there is a new governance structure that is set up to run this port and expand it, not just for the military aid, but in other areas? Yes,” he said. “Is it possible it’s still going to work and the Israelis will try to help to make it work, and it could actually end up providing some value-add to the Rafah operation? Yes.”

Worth Your Time

• In less than a month—on April 8—North America will experience a total solar eclipse, when the moon will move in front of the sun. As Annika Burgess wrote for Atlas Obscura, eclipse madness is already beginning to take hold—and that’s nothing new. “In towns and cities in the path of totality—where the moon completely blocks the sun—hotels are in high demand,” she wrote. “Airlines are promoting flights that coincide with the eclipse, including special eclipse-viewing charter flights. Millions of Americans near the path of totality are expected to hit the road to witness the first eclipse to cross the continent coast-to-coast since Aug. 21, 2017. Still others will attend special events to be around fellow eclipse enthusiasts, including Atlas Obscura’s own Ecliptic Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas. There is, in short, eclipse madness, and not for the first time.” In preparation for the rare celestial event, Atlas Obscura compiled some delightful historical images of people enjoying solar eclipses (in extremely dangerous ways—don’t look directly at the sun!).

Presented Without Comment

President Joe Biden, in testimony to then-special counsel Robert Hur: “I just hope you didn’t find any risqué pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful.”

Also Presented Without Comment

Mediaite: [South Dakota] Governor Kristi Noem Drops Random Five-Minute Infomercial for Dentist, Reasons Unknown

Also Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Ventura Top R.F.K. Jr.’s List for Running Mate

Toeing the Company Line

• Sarah, Jonah, Steve, and Declan discussed our latest editorial, “The American People Deserve Better,” and took questions from audience members on Tuesday night’s episode of Dispatch Live (🔒). Members who missed the conversation can catch a rerun, either video or audio-only, by clicking here.
• In the newsletters: Nick heralded (🔒) the arrival of the new Trump-dominated Republican National Committee.
• On the podcasts: Jonah answered listener questions on another AMA (🔒) on The Skiff, and Chris joined Jonah on The Remnant to tackle the big questions, including how we should interpret primary turnout.
• On the site: Keith Whittington examines the pitfalls of Indiana’s new bill to impose intellectual diversity standards on state universities, Joseph Polidoro explains why artificial intelligence uses so much energy, and Jonah reveals how the RNC purge shows that the GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trumpism.

Let Us Know

What do you think of the U.S.-led effort to increase the flow of aid into Gaza using a temporary pier?