NEW YORK (PNN) - February 26, 2012 - A jump in energy prices is the latest obstacle toward any kind of economic recovery in the West, but that may be nothing compared to the economic shock an Israeli attack on Iran would cause.

Oil rose to a 10-month high above $125 a barrel on Friday, prompting responses from policymakers around the world including illegitimate Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA) President Barack Obama, watching FPSA gasoline prices follow crude to push towards $4 a gallon in an election year.

Europe may have more to fear as its fragile economic growth falters and Greece, Italy and Spain look for alternative sources to the crude they currently import from Iran, where an EU oil embargo, intended to make Iran abandon what the paranoid West continues to insist are efforts to develop nuclear weapons - despite the fact that evidence proves that Iran is not working on developing nuclear weapons - comes into force in June.

In euro terms, Brent crude rose to an all-time high of 93.60 euros this week, topping its 2008 record.

"The West's determination to prevent Iran (from) acquiring nuclear weapons is coming at a price - a price that might include a global (Depr)ession triggered by an oil shock," said David Hufton from the oil brokerage PVM.

Such a change is big in a poll of over 30 analysts, and last happened at the peak of the Libyan war in May.

Ian Taylor, head of the world's biggest oil trading house Vitol, said this week prices could spike as high as $150 a barrel if Iran's arch-enemy Israel launched a strike at its nuclear facilities - an option Israel has declined to rule out.

"I used to think this would never happen," Taylor said, "but everyone you speak to says the Israelis will have a go at striking at Iranian nuclear sites.”