People often wonder what actions they would have taken to prevent past atrocities. It’s a fairly common litmus test for morality or ethics. Depending on how we respond, it can reveal vital information about what we are or are not willing to accept.

As I watched the Palestinians, some of whom were still hooked up to IVs, scream in pain as they were burned alive in a recent Israeli attack on a tent hospital, I wondered: what is the “red line” for people in this genocide?

We are more than a year into Israel’s deadly attack on Gaza, which has killed some 43,000 Palestinians and left the area largely uninhabitable. This scale of mass murder is the result of brutal air raids, ground invasions, starvation tactics, and a blank check for violence and war crimes signed by the United States.

Ordinary Americans do indeed have a red line – and a majority of likely voters want a ceasefire and an end to US arms shipments to Israel.

Israel has now expanded violence into Lebanon, including a recent airstrike that killed at least 21 people. Despite expressions of “concern” from U.S. officials about civilian casualties, U.S. taxpayers continue to fund Israeli aggression, which could soon include an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials have indicated they want a regional war. As my colleague, Middle East expert Khury Petersen-Smith, wrote The hill“Millions of lives across the region are at stake.”

Despite massive Jewish-led protests against Israel’s genocide in the United States, a movement of “uncommitted” primary voters protesting the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war, and an International Court of Justice ruling which orders Israel not to commit acts identifiable as genocide in Gaza. our lawmakers continue to publicly support Israel’s terror campaign and greenlight billions of dollars of our tax dollars for their war.

But ordinary Americans do have a red line – and a majority of likely voters want a ceasefire and an end to US arms shipments to Israel.

But so far, our lawmakers have responded more to donors than to voters. AIPAC has put in nearly $42 million this election cycle, while the top 20 contributors to the defense sector have already spent nearly $23 million between 2023 and 2024. These organizations buy off candidates and undermine our democracy.

Still, I have hope.

Despite all the concentrated power – and outright propaganda – in support of Israel, groups like the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Rabbis for Cease-Fire, the Institute for Middle East Understanding and many others have successfully forced the U.S. public to confront our complicity in genocide “through mass mobilizations, direct actions, closing bridges and roads, shutting down airports and ports,” said Mohammed Nabulsi of the Palestinian Youth Movement.

You can measure the effect of these strategies by looking at the shift in the American public’s attitude toward American support for Israel. A majority of Americans reject this war and our government’s support for it.

If you are reading this and are part of that majority, let’s turn our desperation into action.

Let us fight for an end to the supply of arms to Israel. Let us fight for an end to the occupation of Palestine and all occupied territories around the world. Let us settle for nothing less than Palestinian self-determination and justice for Israeli war crimes.