Talk show host Bill Maher engaged in a respectful debate with actor Henry Winkler over how Israel should conduct the war in Gaza.
The podcast “Club Random with Bill Maher” on Sunday published an episode in which the host interviewed Winkler, known for playing Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on the sitcom “Happy Days.” During the interview, Winkler, who is Jewish, expressed his frustrations over the war in Gaza and the plight of Israeli hostages. He said of the Israeli military: “They're not going to eliminate Hamas. Hamas is an idea, not a group of people.”
Maher responded by arguing that World War II was a great example of destroying ideas through conquering regimes and turning one's own countries into American allies, but Winkler suggested that the war's impact on Gaza's civilians is simply radicalizing more of them to join Hamas: “Don't you think that all those people who are now homeless and their families are destroyed, don't you think that they are Hamas again now?”
They then discussed whether Maher had been implying that by eliminating enough Gazans, Hamas could be destroyed, an accusation the host denied, arguing that he was simply objecting to the idea that an idea cannot be destroyed.
Bill Maher spoke with Jewish actor Henry Winkler about a variety of topics, including the war in Gaza.
Top US general says Middle East tensions have eased 'somewhat' amid new Iranian threats
Maher went on to argue that his response to people who question Israel's conduct in the war is to ask: “Do they know what's really going on underneath Gaza and all the tunnels and how close they are? I don't know either, but you know who does? The Israel Defense Forces. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, but again, they're not the ones deliberately killing civilians. They try not to kill civilians. If they can't understand that difference, morally, then they're very morally confused.”
“Are you seeing the same images as me?” Winkler asked.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE MEDIA AND CULTURE COVERAGE
“Do you think they are trying to kill civilians?” Maher replied.
“I think it's indiscriminate,” Winkler said.
“That's what war is,” Maher replied. “War becomes that. There's no war that wasn't like that. Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground and he wasn't just killing military personnel. It's a disgrace, but again, there's a very simple solution to this: stop attacking Israel. The Jews knew that.”
A picture taken on June 3, 2019, during a guided tour with the Israeli military, shows the inside of a tunnel on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon in northern Israel. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Defense Minister Says Israel Must 'Expand Objectives' Of War To Bring Residents Back To North
Winkler and Maher expressed their mutual respect, with the actor saying: “I kind of disagree with what you're saying, I don't think the head of Israel at the moment is a human being with a soul.”
“That may be true, too,” Maher said. “I didn't say he wasn't doing it, and I didn't even say he wasn't doing what you suggested he might be doing. What I was saying is that even if those things are true, it could also be true that this is the right policy, which I think it is. I think it's been 11 months to do this, let's get it over with while we're at it.”
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
