Tipping Point Quick Hits (02.01.24)

Middle East turmoil, Neuralink testing and a mental health crisis

Blinken: Middle East Situation Extremely “Dangerous”

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the current moment in the Middle East was the most dangerous humanity had experienced in 50 years:

“First I think it’s very important to note that this is an incredibly volatile time in the Middle East,” Blinken said Monday during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “I would argue that we’ve not seen a situation as dangerous as the one we’re facing now across the region since at least 1973, and arguably even before that.”

He was speaking about the weekend drone attack by Iran in Jordan that killed three members of the U.S. military and wounded several dozen more. Since the attacks by Hamas on October 7 in Israel, Iranian proxies and other Iran-backed groups have increased their attacks on U.S. forces due to our alliance with Israel. In fact, the Pentagon has recorded more than 150 attacks on American personnel in the region since early October.

Blinken insisted that the Biden administration was going to retaliate strongly against the most recent attacks:

“We’ve made very, very clear from day one that we’re going to defend our people, we’re going to defend our personnel, we’re going to defend our interests, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

The Biden administration still says it is weighing its options, and on Tuesday Biden seemed to indicate he had made up his mind about how to respond. But nothing has happened yet. Regardless, the risk of any retaliation is that it sparks a wider war in the Middle East.

It’s worth noting that Blinken’s reference to 1973 is a nod to the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab nations including Egypt and Syria. It began very similarly to the recent Hamas attacks: On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, which of course is a major holiday in Israel. In fact, the Hamas attack of October 7 was the day after the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

Thousands died in the 1973 conflict, and the ramifications of it spilled out across the world. This war led to the 1973 energy crisis and embargo against the United States and other countries supporting Israel. It intensified Cold War tensions because the U.S. supported Israel and the U.S.S.R. supported the Arab nations, which led to a standoff between nuclear superpowers.

If Blinken is saying that we are on the precipice of a moment as geopolitically and economically dangerous as 1973, that gets my attention. Satan is stirring up Israel’s enemies and working against God’s redemptive plans. The world is more divided than ever. The state is set for coalitions predicted in Ezekiel 38 and other Scriptures.

And this current conflict—though heartbreaking and deadly—is not the final End Times conflict for Israel.

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Elon’s Neuralink Implants First Chip in Human Brain

Neuralink, the controversial brain-computer interface company owned by Elon Musk, has implanted its devices in a human brain for the first time, according to an announcement from Musk himself.