President Joe Biden will use his State of the Union address to announce that the U.S. military will build a port on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza to help the import of humanitarian aid via large ships, the White House said Thursday.
The revelation was made during a “background” call for journalists that the White House later published on its website:
And importantly, tonight in the speech, the President will announce that he’s directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean, on the Gaza coast, that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters. And this is an initiative that will get underway here when the President makes the announcement and issues the orders. And we wanted to preview it on the call and address any questions you might have.
…While our military will lead this effort in the first instance, we look forward to the port transitioning to a commercially operated facility over time.
The White House officials on the call admitted that “land routes can be the most efficient, cost-effective way to get assistance in,” and that the distribution of aid within Gaza was an additional challenge.
The officials were also unclear whether U.S. troops would be deployed. One official said that “we are not planning for this to be an operation that would require U.S. boots on the ground,” but the U.S. Army had previously said such an idea would take 2,000 troops.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 07: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) listen on February 7, 2023 in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. The speech marks Biden’s first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)
“[T]he President has directed that we look at all options, that we not wait for the Israelis,” one official said.
The officials said that a Gaza port would take “weeks” to plan and execute. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that it would only take “weeks” for Israel to win the war, were it to enter Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah.
Gaza had a small port, which was destroyed during the war. Hamas used it to launch terror attacks on October 7.
An Israeli soldier looks over the main port of Gaza in November 2023 during a battle in which the port was largely destroyed. Hamas had controlled the port and used it to launch attacks by sea against Israel on October 7. (IDF)
Israel has explained repeatedly that there is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, and that the limiting factor is the United Nations’ lack of capacity to distribute the aid, most of which is stolen by Hamas terrorists.
It is not clear whether the administration is working with Israel, which has said it is open to the idea of shipping aid by sea. Previously, Israel had blocked flotillas that attempted to run a blockade to deter Hamas from importing weapons.
Critics say that a quicker way to move aid through Gaza would be to allow Israel to defeat Hamas, then use groups other than the terror-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to move the aid through the Gaza Strip.
Biden has faced opposition within the Democratic Party among Muslim and Arab-American voters who believe that his administration should not be arming Israel or defending its right to attack the Hamas terrorists who launched the war. Many of these voters live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other key swing states crucial to Biden’s reelection campaign.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
