Tipping Point Quick Hits (1.13.22)

Israel prepares for Iran, NASA considers alien contact, and a Temple dye is restored

Israel Air Force Commander Prepared for Iran Strike

In an interview published in late December, the incoming commander of the Israel Air Force (IAF) told The Jerusalem Post that Israel was prepared—right now—to strike Iran’s nuclear program. Major-General Tomer Bar will officially take command of the IAF in April.

If talks between Tehran and the United States fail and Iran continues its quest to create a nuclear weapon, Bar will be the leader who commands a preemptive strike:

“I have to assume it will happen in my time, and my shoulders already understand the weight of the responsibility,” Bar told Yediot Aharonot.

When asked if he thinks Israel can successfully destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, Bar stressed that “there is no way that we will operate there, one thousand kilometers from here, and I will return home without being able to say ‘I completed the mission.’”

It’s noteworthy that Israel’s military leaders are now referring to the potential of a strike at any moment, and assuming that it will happen soon.

I have written before, of course, that a preemptive strike from Israel could be the match that sparks the Gog-Magog War. Interestingly, Bar seems to indicate that he understands hitting Iran won’t be the end of a solitary nation-to-nation conflict, but the beginning of a broader one involving multiple groups.