With oil prices gushing, crude threats may not be way to counter Iranian menace

As transportation minister, it is certainly part of Shaul Mofaz’s job to help develop mass transit and encourage more people to use it. This weekend he arguably contributed more than his share to this worthy cause. Unfortunately, the effect was certainly inadvertent, and not limited to this country alone.

Mofaz’s comments in Friday’s Yediot Aharonot that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was “unavoidable” made headlines around the world, but decidedly not in a good way. The price of crude oil subsequently made a record one-day jump of $11, hitting an all-time high of $139 a barrel – and Mofaz was given considerable credit across the globe for helping make that happen


… ‘It’s one word that did this,’ said Guy Gleichmann, president of United Strategic Investors Group, a commodities brokerage in Hollywood, Florida. Unavoidable. It’s basically saying, ‘We’re going to attack.’

“Rumors of war with Iran, Mr. Gleichmann said, have often led to a spike of several dollars in the price of oil. The issue had died down for a while, he said, but ‘this is like Jason coming back from the dead.’”

Jerusalem Post