Talk show host Bill Maher had a respectful debate with actor Henry Winkler about how Israel should conduct the war in Gaza.
The "Club Random with Bill Maher" podcast released an episode on Sunday where the host interviewed Winkler, who is known for playing Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the sitcom "Happy Days." During the interview, Winkler, who is Jewish himself, expressed his frustrations over the war in Gaza and the plight of Israeli hostages. He argued of the Israeli military, "They’re not gonna 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 by conquering regimes and turning the countries themselves into American allies, but Winkler suggested that the war’s impact on civilians in Gaza is merely radicalizing more of them to join Hamas, "You don’t think that all those people that are now homeless, and their families are destroyed, you don’t think that they are now Hamas again?"
They then went back and forth over whether Maher had been implying that by wiping enough Gazans, Hamas could be destroyed, an accusation the host denied, arguing he was simply objecting to the idea that an idea cannot be destroyed.
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Maher went on to argue that his response to people questioning Israel’s conduct in the war is to ask, "Do you know what's going on, really, underneath Gaza and all the tunnels and how close they are? I don't either, but you know who does know? The Israeli Defense Forces. Now are they perfect? Absolutely not, but again, they're not the ones purposely killing civilians. They try not to kill civilians. If you can't understand that difference, morally, then you're very morally confused."
"Are you watching the same footage I'm watching?" Winkler asked.
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"You think they are trying to kill civilians?" Maher replied.
"I think that it is indiscriminate," Winkler said.
"That's what war is," Maher replied. "War becomes that. There is no war you can name that didn't. Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground and it wasn't just the military people he was killing. It's a shame, but again, there's a very simple solution to this: Stop attacking Israel. Jews used to know this."
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Winkler and Maher expressed their mutual respect for each other, and the actor said, "I disagree a little bit with what you're saying, I don't think that the head of Israel at this moment is a soulful human being."
"That may be true too," Maher said. "I didn't say he wasn't, and I didn't say even that he might not be 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 correct policy, which I believe it is. I think you've gone 11 months to do this, let's finish it while we're there."
