What I Got Wrong in 2024

The first thing I got wrong in 2024 was the war in Gaza, which I saw as a “forever war” with diminishing returns. I allowed my skepticism of Bibi’s intentions — the longer he would prolong the war, the longer he’d stay in power — to cloud my judgement about the need to smash Hamas to regain deterrence.

While my heart never stops aching for the victims of this ugliest of wars, I’ve come closer to those who believe that the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion was so uniquely shattering, it required an equally shattering statement to deter Israel’s enemies.

I also misread the threat from Hezbollah. I’ve been terrified over the years by reports of thousands of precision-guided Hezbollah missiles that could overwhelm Israeli defenses and shut down electrical grids and disable the country. Given that threat, I didn’t think Israel could fight two wars at once. I was wrong. The thousands of pagers that blew up on Sept. 17 to decimate Hezbollah leadership began a turnaround that will go down in Israeli military history.

Back home in the U.S., I was wrong about expecting violence in the aftermath of the Nov. 5 elections. “The potent mix of fear and anger that has marked this election season has reached a peak on Election Day,” I wrote. “It shouldn’t surprise us, then, if it feels as if a civic volcano is about to erupt.”

The only civic volcano that erupted was a Republican sweep of the Electoral College, the popular vote and both houses of Congress.

I was wrong to get sucked in by a woke movement that terrorized dissenters with insults. I shouldn’t have waited until Nov. 7 to write, “Can We Stop Walking on Eggshells Now?” I myself walked on eggshells a little too much, not wanting to be accused of being transphobic, racist or bigoted. 

I misjudged Donald Trump’s legal troubles in the year leading to the elections. I assumed that the slew of indictments would consume him and take him down. But his legal hell had the opposite effect, boosting his fundraising and shifting his status as a victim of the establishment. After an assassin’s bullet just grazed him, a halo of invincibility followed him. Given how he had hit rock bottom after the 2022 midterms, I confess I never saw his epic comeback coming.

I went too easy on the legacy media for not pursuing one of the biggest scandals in recent memory: President Joe Biden’s mental decline that was in evidence at the very beginning of his term, as confirmed in a recent Wall Street Journal expose. The political bias was not just shameful – it was journalistic malpractice. 

Besides getting things wrong, I also had doubts about some of my ideas, like fighting antisemitism like “winners and not whiners.” I’ve written several columns in recent years questioning our obsession with “condemning” and “calling out” every little incident of Jew-hatred. The more we do this, I argued, the worse things seem to get. I’ve also argued that we may be paying a price for this obsession, as it makes Jews look weak and worried only about physical safety.

Am I right about this? I’m not sure. I know that Jew-haters need to know there are consequences to their actions, but beyond that, are we going too far with the paranoia? I’m open to being wrong.

Same with Israel activism on college campuses. Should we fight back with fear or with pride, with protests or with parties? “Let the cops make the arrests. Let the legal eagles and activists do their thing,” I wrote in a column to Jewish college students. “You hit the streets and campuses and party. You do happiness. You show fun and love of life, not fear.”

Am I right? Again, I don’t know. Maybe such ideas need to be tested on campuses. I’m open to being wrong.

I also had errors of omissions.

I waited all year to write a funny column about my obsession with YouTube clips of Third World food markets and survival camping in Alaska, but I never got around to it. I also never wrote that column about whether AI will ever be able to write my columns, how Jews can revive the American Dream, how prayer is losing its vitality, why we need a Jewish Comedy Museum, or the new phenomenon of anti-white racism, among many others. 

So yeah, I missed a few. When you write week after week to readers who are engaged with everything under the sun, finding column ideas is like drinking from a fire hose. But that also makes errors more likely. So as we say goodbye to a topsy turvy year, it’s a perfect time to stop drinking and look back with a little humility.

Happy New Year.