Speaking at the close of the first day of the two-day Cybertech Conference in Tel Aviv, Steinitz said that the attack – which was discovered on Monday – was being “handled” by his ministry, together with Israel’s National Cyber Bureau.

“The virus was already identified and the right software was already prepared to neutralize it,” he told the slowly thinning out crowd – which seemed to suddenly wake up at the news. “We had to paralyze many of the computers of the Israeli electricity authorities. We are handling the situation and I hope that soon, this very serious event will be over.”

The attack, he continued, was yet another example of “the sensitivity of infrastructure to cyber-attacks, and the importance of preparing ourselves in order to defend ourselves against such attacks.”

Steinitz did not identify the attackers, or say whether his ministry had any suspects. A spokeswoman for the Electricity Authority confirmed there had been such an attack, and that, as a consequence, some of the authorities’ computer system had indeed been shut down —for two days. In a statement, she added however, that she believed "we are going to solve this problem in the coming hours.”

If it really happens, the president of the day will be free to use the leverage America has to cause or try to cause Israel to end its defiance of international law and denial of justice for Palestinians. And if an American president gave that lead, European governments would follow him or her.

According to Weiss an important “sociological trend” is underway: “American Jews, even mainstream ones indoctrinated to love Israel, are breaking more and more publicly with the Jewish state. The Netanyahu government is proving to be embarrassing to American Jews; they do not want to be associated with right-wing apartheid policies… The divorce that we have long predicted on this site is now on the horizon; and in years to come this separation will yield an even bigger reward: mainstream American Jews will declare themselves anti-Zionist.”

A related point made in Weiss’s article was that when the present generation of major Jewish funders passes, raising substantial dollars for Israel will be much harder. Weiss concluded with this prediction. “This crisis will not end until American Jews declare Zionism is racism. And one day they will.”

• French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "Europe could lose its historical footing, and the project could die quickly. Things could fall apart in months."

• German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: "If the Schengen system [of border free travel] is destroyed, Europe will be seriously endangered."

• Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Europe's leaders had only "six to eight weeks to save Schengen."

• European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker talked of a "last chance" for Europe. "Without Schengen, the euro has no point," he said.

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "No-one can pretend that you can have a common currency without being able to cross borders relatively easily."

But do these leaders really believe the European Union itself is at risk? It strains credibility to believe the single market is at risk and European project could fall apart in months. But there is an element of fear seeping through the corridors of the Berlaymont building in Brussels and the Bundestag in Berlin.

On his last visit to the Saarland region of Germany, on the border with France, RT’s Peter Oliver met with a group of Assyrian Christians who had been held hostage by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). They recalled that while being held in IS captivity, the only thing they prayed for was to be shot instead of being beheaded.

The same community, now living in the city of Saarlouis, say the horrors of that experience have followed them all the way to Germany, after they found out that a man they say had ties to Islamic State is living among them. A refugee, who only agreed to speak to RT on condition of anonymity, said he is positive the man living in his town is the same member of IS he encountered in Syria.

The Assyrian community now feels very insecure as “this was not the first case” a former IS member had been recognized, the man said. He added that some people are even considering leaving Germany, but do not know where to run to. He recalled that while in captivity, he overheard a conversation between his captors, saying that “the West will belong to us and we will conquer it through Islamization.” One of the IS militants holding Assyrian Christians captive was a German who had converted to radical Islam, the former hostage said.

“There is every reason to expect that IS (the Islamic State organization), IS-inspired terrorists or another religiously inspired terrorist group will undertake a terrorist attack somewhere in Europe again, but particularly in France, intended to cause mass casualties among the civilian population,” Europol, the EU-wide agency for law enforcement cooperation, said in a report. “This is in addition to the threat of lone-actor attacks, which has not diminished.”

The report coincided with the official opening of the European Counter Terrorism Center. Europol director Rob Wainwright said his organization’s new unit in The Hague, Netherlands will be staffed by 40-50 experts in counterterrorism and deal in intelligence-sharing, tracking foreign fighters and sources of illegal financing and firearms, and assisting EU countries in counterterrorism investigations.

Wainwright said over 5,000 EU nationals have been radicalized by fighting with Muslim extremists in Iraq and Syria, and that many have returned home. “The current threat demands a strong and ambitious response from the EU,” said Europol’s chief.

The resolution is a new authorization for use of military force (AUMF) for declaring war on ISIS. It would give the president even more power than the AUMF granted to Bush after 9/11, which is still in place today.

Considering what Bush and Obama did with the 2001 AUMF — invading and occupying countries in “pre-emptive” war, CIA black sites, extrajudicial killings, inventing the term “enemy combatants” to bypass international law, new forms of torture, drone bombing women and children, and assassinating US citizens — the specter of a new and expanded AUMF is truly frightening.

Since ISIS is partially a product of American intervention in the Middle East, being cultivated from the Salafist sect to foment regime change in Syria, “boots on the ground” would complete another cycle for the merchants of death and destruction. The Hegelian Dialectic — create the problem, stoke the reaction, offer the solution — is a tried and true method for endless war.

We have already seen the extremely tenuous connections that war-makers use to justify their death and destruction waged around the world and on their own people. McConnell’s AUMF would clear away any feeble barriers that still stand in the way of a military dictatorship.

In Syria, the Quds and the IRGC have been fighting to bolster Bashar al-Assad’s depleted forces since at least 2012, while the Saudis and the other Gulf monarchies have lent assistance to the various Sunni rebel groups fighting to destabilize the government in Damascus.

In Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi militiamen drove President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi from the country last year, prompting Riyadh to intervene in order to prevent Tehran from establishing what would amount to an Iranian colony on the kingdom’s southern border.

And in Iraq, the sectarian strife is as divisive as ever, with Iran dominating politics in Baghdad and the Ayatollah’s Shiite militias stoking fear in the hearts of the country’s Sunni minority even as the fighters function as the most effective force battling ISIS.

Through it all, Riyadh and Tehran haven’t yet squared off directly. That is, where Saudi Arabia has troops and planes Iran fights by proxy and where Iran has ground troops, the Saudis are fighting through their own proxies.

Saudi Arabia’s move to execute prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr has the potential to change all of that.

The Sheikh was a leading voice among Saudi Arabia’s dissident Shiite minority and his death sparked outrage and street protests across the Shiite community. Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after the Saudi embassy was torched in Iran and the Sunni monarchies quickly followed suit.

Meanwhile, Pentagon chief Ash Carter just can't seem to understand why the Sunni powers aren't more helpful in fighting ISIS. “It’s strange that a Sunni extremist group running rampant in Iraq and Syria should attract as little Sunni Arab counterweight as it has so far,” Carter told Bloomberg TV on Friday.

No, Mr. Carter, it is not "strange", nor is it a coincidence.

There is no "Sunni Arab counterweight" because Saudi Arabia promotes a similar brand of ultra puritanical Islam as that espoused by ISIS. Once again, if the US wants help in defeating Islamic State, Ash Carter may want to look to the nations that actually have a vested interest in bringing about the group's demise, namely Iran and Russia.

Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged that Europe was experiencing "very great" pressure from migration and said the UK was "happy to do more" to strengthen external EU border controls, even though it is not part of the Schengen border-free zone which covers most of the continent.

Mr Valls said that European societies could be "totally destabilised" unless the EU imposes tighter controls at external borders. The French PM told the BBC: "It's Europe that could die, not the Schengen area. If Europe can't protect its own borders, it's the very idea of Europe that could be thrown into doubt. It could disappear, of course - the European project, not Europe itself, not our values, but the concept we have of Europe, that the founding fathers had of Europe. Yes, that is in very grave danger. That's why you need border guards, border controls on the external borders of the European Union."

He left little doubt that he believes German chancellor Angela Merkel's announcement last year that her country would welcome thousands of refugees had encouraged more people to come to Europe. "We need to help Germany," said the French PM. "But the main message we must send now with the greatest of firmness is to say that we will not take in all the refugees in Europe."

Daniel Yergin, founder of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said it is impossible for OPEC to knock out the US shale industry through a war of attrition even if it wants to, and even if large numbers of frackers fall by the wayside over coming months. Mr Yergin said groups with deep pockets such as Blackstone and Carlyle will take over the infrastructure when the distressed assets are cheap enough, and bide their time until the oil cycle turns.

“The management may change and the companies may change but the resources will still be there,” he told the Daily Telegraph. The great unknown is how quickly the industry can revive once the global glut starts to clear - perhaps in the second half of the year - but it will clearly be much faster than for the conventional oil.

“It takes $10 billion and five to ten years to launch a deep-water project.

"It takes $10 million and just 20 days to drill for shale,” he said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.