In which my Senator tries to explain to me why he voted against providing military aid to Israel

About two weeks ago I wrote to both of my Senators, Democrats Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth (Durbin is not seeking re-election this year), criticizing their votes for a bill blocking the sale of U.S. weapons and other aid to Israel, and asking why they have voted this way.

The bill, S. J. Resolution 32, was introduced by Bernie Sanders, and stipulated that the Senate would block military aid (comprising both military bulldozers and 1,000-pound bombs) to Israel.  The bill was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 40-59, largely along party lines, with all Democrats (save seven: Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Chris Coons of Delaware, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York) voting to block aid. Note that the U.S. was selling the materiel to Israel, not giving it to them.

Both Senator Duckworth and Senator Durbin voted “yea” on the bill, meaning they favored blocking the aid to Israel. As I have consistently voted for both Senators in the past, I wanted them to know that I did not favor their votes, and I asked them to explain their positions.  I haven’t yet heard from Duckworth, but here is Durbin’s response.

There’s not much of an explicit explanation save the disputed claim that there is not enough humanitarian assistance going to Gaza. Note Durbin’s words that “The humanitarian conditions in Gaza are appalling, unconscionable, and cruel.”  “Cruel” implies deliberate malfeasance by Israel, supporting a “genocide” accusation. Durbin does not add that Hamas is partly responsible for reducing aid, although some sources argue that the reduction of needed aid is also due to “underfunding, crossing delays, operational restrictions, and general post-war chaos” (from Grok). To the extent that these factors delay needed aid, they must be ameliorated, and to the extent that Israel is responsible for restrictions of needed aid, they must do better.

As far as the 70% women and children killed, this figured has been retracted by Hamas (see below). It’s also misleading, as “children” are defined in this tally as humans under 18, and of course plenty of Hamas fighters are under 18. Overall, the proportion of women killed, according to the figure given below (from Hamas) varies from 30% to 50%, depending on age, but of fighting-age people (13-55), 72% of the fatalities are male. This is certainly not out of line for urban warfare.

John Spencer, who teaches urban warfare at West Point, has said the following:

Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian harm. It warns before attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets, and broadcasts. It opens safe corridors and pauses operations so civilians can leave combat areas. It tracks civilian presence down to the building level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli troops come under fire and still be ordered not to shoot back because civilians might be harmed.

Israel has delivered more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any military in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime. More than 94,000 trucks carrying over 1.8 million tons of aid have entered the territory. Israel has supported hospitals, repaired water pipelines, increased access to clean water, and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.

The IDF has coordinated millions of vaccine doses, supplied fuel for hospitals and infrastructure, and facilitated the flow of food and medicine through the UN, aid groups, and private partners. The U.S.–Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation alone has delivered more than 82 million meals—one to two million a day—while weakening Hamas’s control over aid. This is not genocide. It is responsible and historic mid-war humanitarian policy.

Maarten Boudry, in a critique of the “genocide” allegations called “They don’t believe it either”, takes issue with the 70% figure and cites sources for the data below, namely Hamas (neither Boudry nor Spencer are Jewish). Booudry:

Even according to Hamas’s own statistics, which do not distinguish between combatants and civilians and include many natural deaths, casualties are predominantly male and of fighting age, which is inconsistent with a policy of indiscriminate killing (Hamas initially tried to fool global opinion that the casualties of the Gaza war were “70 percent women and children,” but that claim collapsed under scrutiny and was then quietly retracted).

What to make of all this? It seems that Democrats like Durbin are not up on the statistics, and are making statements that they cannot support. To the extent that they call out Israel for not providing enough humanitarian aid for Gaza, well, that claim needs to be examined, as well as the proposition that it is Israel’s complete responsibility to repair the damage of the war.  But the 70% figure bandied about seems to be flatly wrong.

And I wish Durbin had been more straightforward in his answer, letting me know under what conditions he would have voted for aid to Israel.  But of coursse he’s a politician. And some other Democrat will be running for Senator this fall (the field is crowded).