Israel/business Atlarge/business.

Time does fly. Five years ago, Asian currencies were plunging, hedge funds were attacking, and the world seemed on the brink of crisis. Now Asian currencies are, if anything, too strong, it's the new Israeli shekel (NIS) that's under pressure - and Israel is, possibly, on the brink of a severe crisis. Eighteen months of violence and terror, reprisals and closure have left deep and open wounds on the psyche and body politic of both Israeli and Palestinian societies. Just how deep and open these wounds are has been the subject of conjecture and debate. Israel's economy is on the verge of getting sucked into the global economic crisis, even though the country's leaders have reacted with relative calm to international market turmoil during the past months. The global storm that started to hit hard the Israeli shores during the last three months sent the stock market and the shekel plunging. The shekel had fallen more than 10 per cent against the US dollar in a two-month period beginning Dec. 20, from 4.27 NIS/$ to 4.701 NIS/$, according to data released by the Central Bank of Israel. Since then, the shekel had recovered slightly, rising to 4.67 NIS …