-You wrote an op-ed in "The New York Times" talking about
the escalating violence between Israel and Gaza.
This is a terrible situation.
I know that President Biden reached out
to Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to de-escalate.
Do you feel like that message is getting through,
and do you feel like President Biden is doing enough?
-I think we need an immediate cease-fire, Seth.
The situation there is absolutely terrible.
Just talked to somebody in Gaza yesterday.
And it's not only the loss of lives.
Several hundred Palestinians have been killed.
12 Israelis have been killed.
But in Gaza, you are talking about a situation now
where people don't have electricity.
They don't have fuel.
They don't have clean water.
Their wastewater plants have been destroyed,
and fetid excrement is coming out into the streets.
You have a horrible situation,
and that's built on the terrible situation
that existed before the conflict
where youth unemployment was 70%.
So you've got a total disaster there.
And I think that what the function of where we should be,
especially when we're giving $4 billion a year to Israel,
is we should be bringing people together,
not just being one-sided and saying everything that
Israel does is good, because it is not.
Over the years, Netanyahu and his government
have become much more right wing.
You have overt racists who are now
part of Netanyahu's coalition,
and what the United States has got to say is
"Look, it's a difficult situation.
It's gone on for decades. No magical answer.
But you guys are going to have to come together and develop
a long-term plan that provides dignity
for the Palestinian people, safety for the Israeli people."
We've got to be pro-Israel.
We've got to be pro-Palestinian.
But I think just being one-sided is wrong,
and it is not productive in terms of
bringing peace to the region.
-You know, one of the things you write about,
and I think on a human level we can all agree
that everyone, be they Palestinian, be they Israeli,
deserves safety, deserves security.
And they have a right to that.
You denounce Hamas.
Obviously no one is on the side of shooting rockets into Israel.
But the Palestinians have been let down
by Hamas as a government.
And Hamas does not represent all Palestinians in the same way
that Benjamin Netanyahu does not represent all Israelis.
One of the things that becomes really fraught is that
when people criticize the Israeli government,
it can somehow -- and sometimes, I should say instead of
somehow -- can sometimes be framed as anti-Semitic.
How do we have these conversations, making it clear
to our Jewish friends or Jewish family that
this is not anti-Semitism to be specifically critical about
steps or actions that a government makes?
-Anti-Semitism is a very serious issue and it's a growing issue
in the United States and around the world.
But criticizing the government of Israel does not make you
anti-Semitic anymore than it makes you pro-Hamas
if you talk about the terrible destruction
now taking place in Gaza.
Look, we have -- Trump is gone.
And I hope to see a new face in our foreign policy,
and that is an approach that brings the world together
and understands that we got to deal with climate change.
We got to get the vaccines out
to poor countries around the world.
We should be leading that effort.
And in the Middle East, it is difficult, Seth.
I mean, good people have worked on this issue
for decades without success.
But the current situation is unsustainable.
If you have massive misery and 70% youth unemployment in Gaza,
do you not -- do you doubt for a second
that there will be more and more unrest?
So we have got to figure out a way to bring
Israel and the Palestinians together.
Understand that Hamas is not only a terrorist organization.
It is. It is corrupt.
It is ineffective.
And they do not reflect, I think,
the wishes of the Palestinian people.
And in Israel, to complicate the problem,
you have a government more and more right wing under Netanyahu.
So this is not easy stuff,
but as the most powerful nation on Earth,
we've got to do our best to bring people together
and finally bring peace to that troubled region.
-I would like to stress as well,
it's very easy to talk about it from behind a desk here.
And I certainly don't think it's easy, and I send my wishes
to everyone living through that terrible time in that region.
I want to ask, you were our first guest
when we started doing our shows from home during the summer
and everybody was spending more time at home.
Did you get to spend time with your grandkids?
Was this a good year at least on that topic?
-Well, yes and no.
For three of the kids who live in Pennsylvania,
I have not been able to see them.
For the kids who live in Burlington, we are getting --
Yes, the answer is we have seen them,
and now that the masks are beginning to come off,
it's a much better situation, yeah, for all of us.
I mean, we have gone through a terrible year,
and hopefully we're going to see some better times.
-Did the grandkids enjoy the memes?
-Yes, they did.
They all saw them. They all knew about it.
-Alright, well, I feel like we've talked about
some really tough stuff today,
so I want to show you some of my favorites.
This is -- Did you see "The Sopranos"?
Did you see that one?
-Oh, God. [ Laughter ]
-That's a really good one. I like the subway.
I feel like that's exactly how you would sit on the subway.
-[ Laughs ]
-This one is very -- This is some very fine art.
This is you as a member of the Justice Society.
[ Laughter ]
I don't know if you see yourself up there.
And this one -- I think my favorite one about you here
with Anna Wintour and Cardi B 'cause it's like, "Ha-ha,
how funny would it be if Bernie Sanders was next to Cardi B?"
But, of course, you and Cardi B are friends.
-Yes. [ Laughter ]
-So the real joke here is this one is --
Of all of them, this one is the most likely to be real.
-Yeah, except the last time I saw her,
I wasn't wearing a mask or mittens.
-[ Laughs ] Well, better times.
Hopefully the next time too.
It's always a pleasure.
Hey, thanks so much for making time for us.
And it's just always a pleasure to talk to you.
-Thanks so much, Seth. See you soon.
-Alright, we'll see you soon.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."