Following the heinous acts of violence by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7, 2023, which caused the deaths of over 1,200 people, including relatives of residents of my district, I and many others publicly warned Israel not to make the same mistakes the United States made after 9/11: not to let rage overcome reason nor to let madness push aside morality.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed these warnings and has engaged in one of the most horrifically brutal military operations of the 21st century.

The last 17 months have seen unspeakable destruction and death wrought upon a people who, during the previous 20 years, lived under blockade by the Israeli military and the brutal regime of Hamas.

This war has reached far beyond the shores of Gaza. Sami Shaban, a resident of my district and former member of the Franklin Board of Education, has suffered the loss of over 40 members of his family in Gaza, including his cousin who, along with her newborn son, were killed by the renewed bombing last Tuesday.

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a U.S. Army combat veteran and plastic surgeon from North Brunswick, has twice traveled to Gaza to provide life-saving care to innocent Palestinians injured in the bombing campaigns. Dr. Hamawy has gone on similar medical missions in war-torn countries around the world, but described the situation in Gaza as worse than any he’d seen. In the recent bombings, five of Dr. Hamawy’s colleagues were injured, and one was killed.

We must not fool ourselves. We are not merely witnessing a genocide in Gaza. We are participating in it. We are complicit. As much as we may have claimed to be working towards a ceasefire in the last year, we were feeding the fire that has engulfed Gaza.

This war has seen the deaths of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and nearly 1,000 members of the Israeli military. The bombardment of Gaza has directly killed more than 50,000 Palestinians (mostly women and children), with another 14,000 missing beneath the rubble. Fighting in the West Bank, meanwhile, has killed more than 900 people.

We should also be clear that we have the power to end this atrocity. In its history, Israel has halted its wars—in Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon—not when it completed its claimed objectives, but when its patrons—the United States, the United Kingdom, or the USSR—demanded it do so. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama each reined in Israel at different moments.

At no point in this latest conflict has the United States appeared willing to make this demand. Israel has dropped munitions with a force equal to several times the power of the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. It would have been unable to do so without rearmament by the United States.

In the past year, the U.S. has had several opportunities to say, “Enough is enough.” It could have ended the flow of bombs that Israel dropped on Gaza. Its leaders chose not to.

When Israel postponed negotiations for phase two of the ceasefire agreement, the U.S. did nothing. When Israel cut off aid to Gaza, the U.S. did nothing. When Israel did not begin pulling IDF forces from Gaza on the agreed-upon date, the U.S. did nothing. Now that Israel has shattered the ceasefire, killing hundreds of children and putting the safety of the remaining hostages at risk, will we change course?

Just as the reports and images of atrocities committed against innocent Israelis horrifies me, the images of dead, mangled, and psychologically traumatized children haunt me as a mother and grandmother. Any parent who can extend humanity to Israelis and Palestinians can empathize with the overwhelming grief we’re seeing in that part of the world.

We have a responsibility, at the very least, to not play a part in that pain. If we are to live up to our claimed morality, we must put a stop to it. Netanyahu will not change course until the equation changes. The cost of not ending the war must outweigh his personal benefit in continuing it.

That equation only changes with an arms embargo. An arms embargo is the only leverage the United States possesses to end the genocide in Gaza. An arms embargo is the only way to save the lives of thousands of innocent children. And an arms embargo is the only way to preserve what remains of America’s moral standing in the world.

Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat, represents New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.