The U.S. Military Helps Israel in the 1957 Suez Crisis: President Biden’s Implications for the Security and Security of the Gaza Strip
President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 in the midst of the Suez Crisis. Reagan delayed the delivery of fighter jets to Israel because of the violence in the Middle East. The President had held up loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
The United States has historically provided a lot of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants. There is growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the administration of President joe Biden which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.
The United States dropped a small bomb on the Islamic State militant group. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently in the seven-month Gaza war. The weapon’s use has helped drive the Palestinian casualty count higher, though it doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militant fighters.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.
The Congress passed a $95 billion national security bill last month, which included funding for some allies. The package included more than $14 billion in military aid for Israel, though the stalled transfer was not related to that measure.
The Biden administration continues to face pressure to give more humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people. There is a chance of a change to the US government if Israel fails to do more to protect civilians, aid workers and address the growing humanitarian crisis.
Privately, concern has mounted inside the White House about what’s unfolding in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they did not think the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a widescale operation in the city.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
U.S. assistance to Gaza after the Gazan War: “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I will have to give up”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to square the arms holdup with Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only, “Two things could be true.”
U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree.”
Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the shipment was paused last week and a final decision had not yet been made on whether the shipment should be continued at a later date.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of U.S. concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting. More than one million people are taking shelter in the nearby town of Rafah after being evacuated from other parts of Gaza, in the wake of the deadly attack on Israel.
“The sort of novel creation of a port and a floating pier does not necessarily address any of the real problems that we’ve been facing as humanitarian organizations in delivering that aid in a consistent and safe manner, at scale, to populations across Gaza,” she said. It’s become obvious that famine-like metrics are being faced by the people of Gaza due to the fact that fewer people have been coming through the low land crossings than they used to.
But questions remain about whether this will be a successful operation. Military officials say that tens of thousands of desperate people could crowd at the end of the causeway and block trucks from delivering aid.
The effort will begin with 90 trucks a day, and then will go up to 150. Humanitarian officials say that 500 trucks per day rolled into Gaza from land crossing before the 7th of October. Hamas launched an attack.
U.S. officials say aid from the sea and causeway are meant to supplement the more efficient land crossings. But with the Rafah border crossing now closed, rimmed with Israeli tanks, and an Israeli military operation is imminent, the situation is now even more dire.
The U.S.-led initiative, which President Biden first described in his March State of the Union as an important measure to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in the region, was expected to start operating by May.
At the Department of Defense briefing Tuesday officials said the pier is complete, but that there are some weather issues that have delayed operations. On Monday, National Security spokesman John Kirby said security arrangements for those delivering the aid are still being worked out.
The pier is a supplement for existing aid distribution efforts and thus will not make much of a difference to the region’s humanitarian crisis, according to humanitarian aid groups.
The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy are working jointly to construct a floating platform, along with a temporary pier off the Gaza Strip. Biden made it clear that there wouldn’t be boots on the ground.
Shipments of aid will first arrive in Cyprus, according to USAID. Israeli officials will inspect the deliveries before they leave for Gaza. The aid will be delivered by ships and then smaller vessels will bring it to a pier which is on the shore of the Gaza Strip. Trucks deployed by another group would then bring shipments to the rest of Gaza over land.
The World Food Program will be involved in delivering aid according to the Pentagon. Security is a top concern, and questions remain about safety for any aid group working to deliver aid from the pier. More than 200 aid workers have died in the war, and the recent killing of seven foreign aid workers with World Central Kitchen, who died in targeted Israeli airstrikes, catapulted the issue into the global spotlight.
“I do not know of a situation where hundreds and hundreds of trucks laden with lifesaving aid are just a few miles away from the border, where over 95% of the people are in need,” Mahla said. Let the trucks in, it is the best way to save lives.
The Siege of the Mercy Corps – Why a Pier isn’t a Good Idea? Kate Phillips-Barrasso, VP of Global Policy and Action at Mercy Corps
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the vice president of global policy and advocacy with Mercy Corps, said the construction of a pier wouldn’t mitigate ongoing challenges that humanitarian organizations, such as Mercy Corps, face.
“If fighting doesn’t stop, we can’t safely deliver aid at the correct level,” she said. “We have been very clear that what’s really driving the humanitarian situation — it’s the siege.”