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US airdrop of aid ‘grossly ineffective PR move’
Mohamad Elmasry, an analyst at the Doha Institute for Graduate studies, has told Al Jazeera that the US decision to airdrop aid inside the Gaza Strip is a “PR move” that is “grossly ineffective.”
“They’re going to be airdropping the equivalent of two trucks of aid, and Biden just said that hundreds of trucks are needed every day,” Elmasry said. Additionally, “the US has been supplying weapons to Israel and even bypassed Congress twice to send more.”
He said the Biden administration is conscious of the optics and is aware that Israel may be convicted of genocide a few years from now. “They want to be able to be able to say: We told Israel not enough aid was going in and we even did these air drops – so we weren’t complicit in this genocide,” he added.
While the US has leverage on Israel and could “pick up the phone and end all this right now,” it choses not to do so because of political calculations. “They have a strategic interest in supporting Israel and are terrified of what AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, may do inside the US and wreak havoc on the upcoming election,” Elmasry said.
“Unfortunately for Palestinians, Palestinian life isn’t particularly high on that priority list.”
Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City on Friday
Aid groups unconvinced by humanitarian aid drops
Aid agencies are saying that the US government’s efforts would be much better spent putting more pressure on Israel to open more land crossings and to provide security so that the aid that crosses at those land border locations can actually be distributed. They say that much more aid can be delivered that way.
They are also calling on the US to not put planes in the air to drop material, because they say that is dangerous for those on the ground.
The aid groups also believe that the US is not using its leverage to convince Israel to agree to a temporary ceasefire or pause in the fighting, something the Biden administration has said that it wants to achieve.
Aid airdrops ‘symbolic’ gesture to ‘appease’ US electorate
Dave Harden, former USAID director to the West Bank, has told Al Jazeera that airdrop deliveries planned by the US are a “symbolic” and ineffective way of delivering aid to the Gaza Strip. “The airdrops are symbolic and designed in ways to appease the domestic base,” he said. “Really what needs to happen is more crossings [opening] and more trucks going in every day.”
Airdrops recently delivered by the Jordanian air force ended up in the sea and in Israeli territory due to strong winds. Footage showed large crowds on the shore in Deir el-Balah scrambling into the sea to fetch the aid, which had been spoiled by the salty water.
Harden said high-altitude airdrops are conducted to minimise the danger of flying at lower altitudes, making this an inefficient and risky way of delivering aid.
“I think the United States is weak and that’s really disappointing to me,” he added. “The US has the ability to compel Israel to open up more aid and by not doing that we’re putting our assets and our people at risks and potentially creating more chaos in Gaza.”
