War in Gaza

[Judas Maccabeus]

I was curious about this floating pier business so I looked up what I could find out. There is a whole world out there of international shipping blogs, twitter, and YouTube and the world of those people (international shipping logistics types) have been chatting about it. From what I have been able to discern

1. There is a US Army vessel (not Navy) called the USS Besson that departed Virginia in route for Gaza on Saturday March 9th. It is part of the Army’s Seventh Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), and that some 1,000 American service members will be involved (I did not know that the Army had its own ships, learn something new every day). No exact word when all will be up and running but minimum several weeks.



2. These vessels are designed to assemble temporary floating pier structures at sea then they push the assembled pier (or large sections of it) ashore with smaller tugboat style vessels and anchor it to the shore and sea floor with lots of heavy anchors. Here are some pics of them doing the same thing during military exercises in Korea a couple years ago. So this is something they regularly practice





3. Apparently the Army would be using all of its equipment to offload aid ships docked at this floating harbor with heavy equipment and delivering it to nearby staging areas for transfer onto aid trucks with army cranes and fork lifts or whatever they use. As you can see from the first photo, the Army has big fork lifts that can lift and carry whole shipping containers and probably cranes that can pull stuff off of cargo ships. They have been doing this sort of thing for a long time. Since at least WW2.

4. Finally the Israeli Army will be on site inspecting goods as ships offload them before they are handed off to aid organizations in the harbor for distribution to the rest of Gaza. Which makes me wonder what the whole point of this is other than optics since they could be doing that same thing at the Egyptian border without going through all this trouble.

I hope they have their deconfliction strategy down. Expect trouble when they try to offload the stuff, as that is what is happening at Rafah crossing.

[Robert]

(I did not know that the Army had its own ships, learn something new every day).

And I did not realize this...

Counterintuitively, the Army actually has more watercraft than the Navy, according to Army Central. One of the service’s responsibilities is to establish port entry operations for troops.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-arm ... ddle-east/

https://www.twz.com/6149/meet-the-bigge ... he-us-army

Army Corps of Engineers build docks and such.

[Josh]

And they can put a dock and a small port basically anymore in no time flat. And provide security for it too…

My concern with this is, it’s basically a U.S. occupation of Gaza/Israeli territory. I don’t think that’s a great idea. Instead, they could simply allow goods from the Rafah crossing.

[Ernie]

My concern with this is, it’s basically a U.S. occupation of Gaza/Israeli territory. I don’t think that’s a great idea. Instead, they could simply allow goods from the Rafah crossing.

I don't think anybody other than Israel and Hamas thinks it is a great idea and they are the only ones who are not allowing goods to enter by trucks and be distributed throughout the country. Either one could make the truck option work if they wanted to.

[Josh]

My concern with this is, it’s basically a U.S. occupation of Gaza/Israeli territory. I don’t think that’s a great idea. Instead, they could simply allow goods from the Rafah crossing.

I don't think anybody other than Israel and Hamas thinks it is a great idea and they are the only ones who are not allowing goods to enter by trucks and be distributed throughout the country. Either one could make the truck option work if they wanted to.

Hamas doesn’t control the Rafah crossing. The ball is entirely in Israel’s court.

[Ernie]

My concern with this is, it’s basically a U.S. occupation of Gaza/Israeli territory. I don’t think that’s a great idea. Instead, they could simply allow goods from the Rafah crossing.

I don't think anybody other than Israel and Hamas thinks it is a great idea and they are the only ones who are not allowing goods to enter by trucks and be distributed throughout the country. Either one could make the truck option work if they wanted to.

Hamas doesn’t control the Rafah crossing. The ball is entirely in Israel’s court.

But Hamas is in charge of the police who are supposed to allow/protect aid so that it can get to where it needs to go.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 024-03-08/

[Josh]

But Hamas is in charge of the police who are supposed to allow/protect aid so that it can get to where it needs to go.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 024-03-08/

Well, yes, Hamas is the closest thing to a subnational government in Gaza. (Israel overall controls the entire territory at a national level.) So any aid given will be under the control of the local government, in a manner of speaking.

I don't think the fact Hamas is currently running the subnational government is a valid reason to starve every last Gazan, though.

[Ernie]

I don't think the fact Hamas is currently running the subnational government is a valid reason to starve every last Gazan, though.

Is this hyperbole? Or stating the most extreme possible position?
Nobody intends to starve every last Gazan.

[Josh]

I don't think the fact Hamas is currently running the subnational government is a valid reason to starve every last Gazan, though.

Is this hyperbole? Or stating the most extreme possible position?
Nobody intends to starve every last Gazan.

Continuing to blockade food imports will do that, though, and that's currently the government of Israel's position.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I don't think the fact Hamas is currently running the subnational government is a valid reason to starve every last Gazan, though.

Is this hyperbole? Or stating the most extreme possible position?
Nobody intends to starve every last Gazan.

Continuing to blockade food imports will do that, though, and that's currently the government of Israel's position.

I believe that there are some in Israel that would like every single Palestinian to die or leave. Some on their far right have as much as said that.