On Friday, the New York Mercantile Exchange set a new record for the price of oil, closing the day at $77.03. This broke the previous record — of $76.70 — that was set the day before.

Israel occupies the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Jordan supplies those in Gaza. People and arms flow across the Sinai between Egypt and Gaza. Israel re-invades Lebanon, chasing Hizbullah (aka Hezbollah).

With each passing day and additional explosion — regardless of whether it is triggered by a belt or launched by a tank or plane of the Israeli Defense Force — further shakes the region, causing tremors within the oil markets and shaking the foundations of commerce, on the brink of a whole new meaning to Friendman’s flattened global economy.

For some insight of how other parts of the world view, read and understand the potent mix brewing along the Mediterranean coastline, see:

Al Ahram Weekly (Egypt)
The Guardian (UK)
Reporters Without Borders (Paris)

And, what may be the most important perspective of all for Americans to understand comes from Al Jazeera (Qatar).

This entry was posted on Friday, July 14th, 2006 at 11:05 pm by Chad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.