Austrian leader compares rightists to 'new Jews,' sparking ire

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Far-right Austrian politicians were widely criticized Monday for comparing protests against a fancy ball that attracts extremists to the Nazis' persecution of Jews. Vienna's Jewish community demanded an investigation into the remarks but the Freedom Party insisted no harm was meant.

The comments by Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and an associate were first reported Sunday on the website of the daily Der Standard, but they drew little attention until Monday. The furor extended the controversy over Friday's far-right ball which attracted guests from the new-Nazi fringe and was held this year the same day the world pays tribute to victims of the Holocaust.

Police recorded only isolated incidents Friday from demonstrators outside the Viennese palace where the ball was being held. But Strache was quoted as saying the violence "was like Kristallnacht," referring to the 1938 anti-Semitic riots across Germany and parts of Austria that left streets strewn with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned property and synagogues. Kristallnacht was an ominous sign of the Holocaust to follow.

"We are the new Jews," Strache declared to other ball guests, according to Austrian media.

Strache associate Klaus Nittmann, meanwhile, was quoted as saying, "whoever works for this ball immediately gets a Jewish star pinned on him"--a reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear under Nazi rule.

Austria's Jewish community demanded that the state prosecutor investigate the comments and urged Strache to give up his parliamentary immunity from legal action.

Spice Girls reuniting for Queen's jubilee

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The biggest girl group of the 1990s is making a comeback!

Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown revealed the band will be reuniting this summer during a recent interview on Australian TV--but contrary to reports, it won't be for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

"I think the Queen's Jubilee concert is the event I'd be looking at more closely for that to happen," the 36-year-old said. Realizing she revealed too much, the singer quickly changed the subject.

According to The Sun, Brown told TV crew members backstage: "I am going to be in such strife for saying that. It's all so totally bloody top-secret still."

The "Scary" musician and her bandmates--Victoria "Posh" Beckham, 37, Geri "Ginger" Halliwell,39, Emma "Baby" Bunton, 36, and Melaine "Sporty" Chisholm, 38--last performed together during a reunion tour that kicked off in 2007.

"I'm always down for a Spice Girls reunion," Brown said. "I love the Scary hair and platforms. Any time of day or night I'll be there."

To mark 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, the Diamond Jubilee will take place on June 4, 2012. The group will perform in front of the royal family, including Prince William and Kate Middleton.

"Cats" is back in Vienna after 20 years

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The world famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "Cats," is back in Austria after 20 years. Some 230,000 tickets went on sale for the production which begins in Vienna in two days and almost half of these have already been sold.

Thought of as one of the most successful musicals of all time, the infamous production based on T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" will be performed in Vienna between January 29 to May 28 2012.

Having appeared in London's West End in 1981, the musical then came to Vienna translated two years later, taking the city by storm. The production was performed for almost seven years and attracted around 2.3 million visitors. "Many people who loved it before now want to come with their kids," explained manager Juan Escandell.

The award winning musical tells the story of Jellicle Cats and the choosing of the cats most deserving of going to the 'Heavy Side Lair" or their version of heaven where they come back to life. Each musical number from Andrew Lloyd Webber tells the tale of a different feline and why they think they are most worthy of making the journey.

"Cats" has captured the hearts of some 65 million theatre goers from around the world in its time and continues to attract audiences with its celebrated music and lively performances. In the last 30 years the musical has been performed in 300 cities around the world with the words of such songs "Memory" becoming iconic for so many.

Israeli film takes top documentary prize at Sundance

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

January has been a good month for Israeli filmmakers.

"The Law in These Parts," an Israeli documentary that turns a sharply-focused lens on the IDF's judicial system in the West Bank, took the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah this month.

The accolade comes less than a week after Joseph Cedar's feature film "Footnote" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, the 10th such Israeli Oscar nomination in history.

"The Law in These Parts," directed by Israeli Ra'anan ALexandrowiz also earned the title of Best Documentary at the 2011 Jerusalem Film Festival.

In accepting his prize in Park City, Alexandrowicz said the documentary was the hardest film he had ever made. "This is an amazing moment for me as a filmmaker, but it's a film about a painful and unresolved subject," he said. "What you find out in the film and in other films in this festival, is that upholding law doesn't always lead to justice. It can even be used as a tool against certain segments of society. We have to oppose them and if necessary we have to break them."

When he accepted his award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Alexandrowicz said, "I dedicate this award to all those who break the rules that divide people and promote ideologies under the guise of the law."

Also at Sundance, a film by Palestinian filmmaker and produced according to its official billing, as a joint effort of "Palestine, Israel and France," took the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award.

Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat won the award for his "5 Broken Cameras," which he co-directed with Israeli Guy Davidi. The film chronicles the passionate and often violent protests along the security barrier in Bil'in.

"Elizabeth The Queen"

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Book Review

From the moment of her ascension to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II has been the object of unparalleled scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well do we really know the world's most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in intimate detail the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II, who has led her country and Commonwealth through the wars and upheavals of the last 60 years with unparalleled composure, intelligence and grace.

In "Elizabeth The Queen," we meet the young girl who suddenly becomes "heiress presumptive" when her uncle abdicated the throne. We meet the 13-year-old Lilibet as she falls in love with a young navy cadet named Philip and becomes determined to marry him, even though her parents prefer wealthier English aristocrats.

We see the teenage Lilibet repairing army trucks during WWII and standing with Winston Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Place on V-E Day. We see the young Queen struggling to balance the demands of her job with her role as the mother of two young children. Sally Bedell Smith brings us inside the palace doors and into the QUeen's daily routines--the "red boxes" of documents she reviews each day, the weekly meeting she has had with 12 prime ministers, her physically demanding tours abroad and the constant scrutiny of the press--as well as her personal relationships with Prince Philip, her husband of 64 years and the lover of her life; her children and their often-disastrous marriages; her grandchildren and friends.

Compulsively readable and scrupulously researched, "Elizabeth The Queen" is a close-up view of a woman we've known only from a distance, illuminating the lively personality, sense of humor and canny intelligence with which she meets the most demanding work and family obligations. It is also a fascinating window into life at the center of the last great monarchy.

One in five young Germans have never heard of Auschwitz

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

A survey conducted two days ahead of International Holocaust Memorial Day revealed today that 21% of Germans between the ages of 18-29 do no know that Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp, French news agency AFP reported.

Nearly a third of the 1,000 people questioned were unaware that Auschwitz, possibly the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps was even located in today's Poland.

The poll comes just ahead of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops on January 27 1945. Traditionally, Germany marks this anniversary with official memorial ceremonies for the victims of the Holocaust.

The survey also showed that of people aged 30 and older, 95% had heard of Auschwitz and the atrocities committed there, but fewer than 70% were able to name the country it lies in.

The British Daily Mail also reported that almost half of the Germans polled stated that they had never visited the site of a concentration camp, despite the fact that Germany has turned all the camps on its soil into memorials for the victims.

Azerbaijan foils assassination attempt on Israeli ambassador

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Diplomatic Circles Report

Security officials in Azerbaijan arrest three men suspected of being sent by Iranian intelligence officials to assassinate Israeli ambassador Michael Lotem. Some reports say a nearby Chabad house was also targeted. Suspicious letters reportedly sent to several Israeli consulates in the U.S. and Europe.

The suspects allegedly purchased weapons and explosive materials and claimed their aim was to avenge recent assassinations of Iranian scientists. Iran has accused Israel and the West of a string of mysterious explosions in Iran that have killed several nuclear scientists and damaged arms depots in an effort to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied involvement, while Western officials have vehemently denied involvement.

According to some reports about the alleged plot the target was not the embassy but a nearby Chabad house and rabbis who run the Ohr Aner School in Baku. In 2008, an attempt was made to detonate a car bomb near the embassy, reportedly in an effort to avenge the death of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, who had been killed in a bomb blast in Damascus earlier that year. Hezbollah accused Israel of murdering Mughniyeh. Israel has never admitted responsibility for the incident.

"At this time when our enemies in the north are refraining from offensive activity for fear of harsh retaliation, we are seeing an effort on the part of Hezbollah and other hostile groups to carry out vicious terrorist attacks far from Israel's borders," IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said today. "I suggest they don't test our resolve."

A senior defense official told "Israel Hayom" today that several factors were behind the recent wave of attempt to attack Israelis abroad, which had included the discovery of a terror cell in Thailand and a failed attempt to attack Israelis in Bulgaria. As well as retaliation for the recent spate of mysterious attacks on Iranian scientists, another motive might be the fourth anniversary of Mughniyeh's death. The official also cited anti-Israeli sentiments stirred by the Arab Spring uprisings as a possible motive for terrorist organizations to attack Israelis. According to the official, there have been other attempts to harm Israelis outside the country that have not yet been publicized.

Meanwhile, the FBI said a suspicious letter containing a white powder was found at the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, similar to letters found at other Israeli consulates during the past two days, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today. "There are a lot white-powder letters that are going to Israeli consulates around the country. There may be more out there," FBI spokesman Chris Allen said.

Israeli film 'Footnote' to tread Oscar red carpet

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Israeli director Joseph Cedar will make his second trip to the Academy Awards with his movie "Footnote." The nomination marks the 10th time an Israeli film has been up for Best Foreign Language Film. Cedar: "I feel like the luckiest guy."

Four years after stepping on to the red carpet of the Academy Awards for his film "Beaufort," Israeli director Joseph Cedar will be returning this year with his new movie "Footnote." The film was officially nominated in the category of Best Foreign Language FIlm and will compete for a golden statuette at the 84th Academy Awards in Los Angles on Feb. 26.

"Footnote" is a family drama about a father and son who are both Talmudic scholars at the Hebrew University, and involves a rivalry surrounding the acceptance of the Israeli Prize. It stars legendary Israeli comedic actor Shlomo Bar-Aba as the father and Lior Ashkenazi of "Walk on Water" fame as his son. In September, "Footnote" clinched the Ophir Award--the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar--for best picture as well as eight other trophies. The film also won Best Screenplay award at the Cannes International Film Festival in May and was snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics for North American distribution.

Only minutes after it was announced that "Footnote" was nominated for an Oscar contender, a press conference was hurriedly organized in Tel Aviv. Cedar looked bewildered at the sight of the masses of camera crews surrounding him.

"It must be a slow news day," the director said with a smile. "I feel like a lucky guy. There's is no other way to say it. Despite expectations to the contrary, the film was able to garner fans and that is a major source of satisfaction. We were aware that initial screenings had been warmly received, but still we were very surprised," Cedar said.

"Higher Ground" (2011)

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The same intelligence, wit and mature spirit that actress Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air") brings to her performances is richly apparent in her directorial debut as well, the inquisitive spiritual drama "Higher Ground."

Based on Carolyn Briggs' memoir "This Dark World," and adapted by Farmiga with Briggs and Tim Metcalfe, the film depicts the journey of Midwesterner Corinne from godly wonderment to roiling dissatisfaction. As a teenager, literary-minded, curious Corinne (played in these scenes by Farmiga's youngest sister, Taissa), bristles at the disintegrating union of her mother and father.

When her own blissful romance with a long-haired rock guitarist named Ethan quickly settles into a workaday marriage, young parenthood and near-tragedy, the pair double down on their bond by turning to the Bible as a way to make sense of their changing lives.

Farmiga and Joshua Leonard pick up the roles of Corinne and Ethan as adults, when they've settled into a tightly knit, rural evangelical Christian community marked by hippie-ish conventions (folk-tined song circles, sexual happiness chatter) and ultra-conservative attitudes about gender roles. So while Ethan can find fulfillment as a musician for Jesus, Corinne's attempt at self-expression in church is reprimanded as "preaching to men."

As doubt creeps in Corinne's mind with each twist of life, Farmiga's beatific features tighten ever so slightly, her character discovering the importance of self-determined strength in a world where dogma and uncertainty don't easily mix.

At a time when the country seems willfully divided into camps of believers and nonbelievers, "Higher Ground" treads an in-between area with admirable compassion and insight.

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

"The Life of Emile Zola" is a biographical film about French author Emile Zola. Set in the mid through late 19th century, it depicts his friendship with noted painter Paul Cezanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement in the Dreyfus affair. The film had its premiere in Los Angeles and was a great success both critically and financially, contemporary reviews cited it as the best biographical film made up to that time. It is still held in high regard by many critics. It also won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Struggling write Emile Zola (Paul Muni) shares a drafty Paris attic with his friend, painter Paul Cezanne. A chance encounter with a street prostitute hiding from a police raid leads to his first bestseller, "Nana," an expose of the steamy underside of Parisian life.

Other successful books follow. Zola becomes rich and famous, he marries ALexandrine and settles down to a comfortable life in his mansion. One day his old friend Cezanne still poor and unknown, visits him before leaving the city. He tells Zola that he has become complacent, a far cry from the zealous reformer of his youth.

Meanwhile, a French secret agent steals a letter addressed to a military officer in the German embassy. The letter confirms there is a spy within the top French army staff. With little thought, the army commanders decide that Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus is the traitor. He is courtmartialed and imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guyana.

Later, Colonel Picquart, the new chief of intelligence, discovers evidence implicating Major Esterhazy as the spy, but he is ordered by his superiors to remain silent, as this revelation would embarrass them. He is quickly reassigned to a distant post.

Years go by. Finally, Dreyfu's loyal wife Lucie pleads with Zola to take up her husband's cause. Zola is reluctant to give up his comfortable life, but the evidence she has brought him piques his curiosity. He publishes a letter in the newspaper accusing the army of covering up a monstrous injustice. Zola barely escapes from an angry mob incited by agents provocateurs employed by the military.

As he had expected, he is brought to trial for libel. His attorney does his best but the presiding judge refuses to allow him to bring up the Dreyfus affair and the military witnesses all commit perjury with exception of Picquart. Zola is found guilty and sentenced to a year is prison. He reluctantly accepts the advice of his friends and flees to England, where he continues to write on behalf of Dreyfus.

A new administration finally admits that Dreyfus is innocent those responsible for the coverup are forced to resign or are dismissed and Esterhazy flees the country. However, Zola dies of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty stove the night before the public ceremony in which Dreyfus is exonerated.

The film won three Academy Awards and was nominated in another seven categories.

One in five Germans still harbors anti-Semitic feelings, a new study shows

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Report commissioned by German parliament says anti-Semitism still rooted in German society. Many Germans agree with anti-Semitic statements such as "Jews have too much power in business."

More than 60 years after the end of WWII, anti-Semitism is still rampant in Germany, a new study by an independent committee of experts appointed by the German parliament has revealed. The study, released Monday, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan 27, shows that 20% of Germans harbor "latent" anti-Semitic feelings.

The study--which draws on several different surveys and other research--puts Germans in the middle of the pack in Europe, with a German university survey showing more latent anti-Semitism in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Portugal and less in Italy, Britain, the Netherlands and France.

"Anti-Semitism in our society is based on widespread prejudices, deeply rooted cliches and on sheer ignorance about Jews and Judaism," one of the author, London-based German history professor Peter Longerich told reporters at a press conference to unveil the report in Berlin.

The study shows that about one-fifth of Germans agree with anti Semitic statements such as "Jews have too much power in business." It also shows that anti-Semitism runs deep in mainstream society, citing children's frequent use of the word "Jew" as an insult in playgrounds. The report also cited chants from crowds at soccer matches where Jewish teams play shouting "Jews to the gas chamber," or "Bring back Auschwitz."

The rise of the internet has made this a particularly volatile problem, the study's author's add, because it provides a platform for extremists to spread their hateful messages. The report did say, however, that the vast majority of anti-Semitic crimes are committed by right-wing extremists who number only about 26,000 of Germany's more than 80 million residents.

Germany Marks Anniversary of Wannsee Conference

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Germany somberly marked the 70th anniversary of the infamous Wannsee Conference today with the country's president saying the meeting that laid out plans for the Holocaust still caused "anger and shame."

At the same villa on the shore of Berlin's Wannsee lake where the original meeting took place, now a museum, President Christian Wulff told an audience that even though many years have passed, Germany should never be allowed to forget its responsibility for the genocide of some 6 million European Jews. "Therefore it is important and a national task to keep the memory alive," he said.

On January 20,1942, high-level members of the Nazi party and other bureaucrats met at the villa to orchestrate large-scale plans for the extermination of Jews. At the time, hundreds of thousands of Jews had already been murdered, but many historians believe that the conference was the point at which Adolf Hitler's plans for their industrialized killing were laid out explicitly for his top officials.

These men included Nazi party members and members of the Ss, the party's military force, which was to oversee the plans.

"This place and the name 'Wannsee' has become a symbol for the bureaucratically organized decision between life worth living and life not worth living, for state organized extermination, for the planned and official systematic killing of Europe's Jews," Wulff said.

Rent Hitler's 'Wolf's Lair'

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Looking for a secluded vacation spot? For $139,000 a year you can rent the bunker complex used by Hitler during WWII, reports the Telegraph. Known as the "Wolf's Lair," the 32-acre site was built in a Polish forest and became the central headquarters of the Nazi dictator from 1941 to 1944. Drawback: German forces destroyed much of it as they fled.

The Wolf's Lair was big enough to accommodate 2,000 Nazi staff and personnel. It was also the setting for a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944, popularized in the Tom Cruise movie "Valkyrie." The Polish Forestry Service acquired the site after the war and it now draws 180,000 tourists each year. Forest officials hope an investor will make it even more accessible to tourists, notes the Daily Mail.

Plans to make 'Mein Kampf' available in German could be illegal

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Plans by a British publisher to make segments of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" available in the German language may run into legal trouble.

Publisher Peter McGee said he plans to publish three annotated excerpts of the text, which remains under copyright protection, in Germany until 2015, 70 years after Hitler's death, according to the Associated Press. The Bavarian Finance Ministry, which holds the copyright, told AP today that plans to print excerpts in Germany before then may violate the law.

While a U.S.-based Holocaust survivor's organization opposes McGee's move, Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told Der Spiegel that he would not object to the annotated publication of the text in Germany. Hitler wrote his anti-Semitic diatribe in 1924 while in prison in Landsberg. He later left the printing rights to the state of Bavaria, which has banned publication in Germany, and tried to prevent it elsewhere.

In 2010, the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History was granted permission to reprint the work after the copyright lapses. Historians there are working on an annotated edition.

Bavarian authorities have reiterated frequently that they would not lift the ban prematurely in Germany out of concern that right-wingers could legally use it. But Steven Kramer general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told reporters in 2009 that it made sense to publish the book "to prevent neo-Nazis from profiting from it" and to "remove many of its false, persistent myths."

The book is available to researchers in libraries, but it is currently not legal to publish it in Germany. However, translations of the book are available abroad and sometimes make their way into Germany. In addition, unauthorized versions are available on far-right and Islamic extremist websites based outside of Germany. Germany bans public displays of Nazi symbols and hate material, including on the internet.

In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetary

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Movie Review

In an area of northeast Berlin, Weissensee Jewish Cemetery is a quiet, peaceful 100-acre retreat that holds the graves of 115,000 people and houses a remarkable archive with a wealth of family histories and other information that dates back 130 years to the very establishment of the burial ground during the 1850s. It has, since its gates were opened, withstood all of the warfare and social unrest that swept over Europe during the ensuing decades, remaining intact up the present day. Weissensee is the oldest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. In fact, it has never closed never interrupted its operation, never ceased to serve the Jewish community--not even during the years of Nazi domination of Germany and the heinous discrimination against, transportation and murder of Jews.

It seems a miracle that the Nazis did not seize, loot and destroy this cemetery as they did other centers of Jewish tradition and culture. Some say it is because the Nazis were extremely superstitious and feared ghosts. Never-the-less the cemetery remained undisturbed and other than the natural evolutions that occur with time, as it was meant to be" a peaceful resting place for all those interred within its walls. Every gravestone is still in place and each now stands as an historical monument. Each is a holocaust survivor.

Showing tremendous empathy and understanding, filmmaker Britta Wauer interviews various people who are affiliated in some way with the cemetery, or who have journeyed from the far reaches of the world to visit it. Wauer's subjects are an appealing lot. She follows tourists, mourners, a third-generation grave digger, a world-wise rabbi, a family who actually lives at the cemetery and a bird watcher who is studying birds of prey. All of their stories, illustrated with archival footage and home photos, are interwoven and contribute greatly to the film's overall appeal and meaning.

But, really, the film's lead character is Weissensee Jewish Cemetery itself, a place that houses the dead, but has survived to become a symbol of human resilience, and of the importance of recognizing and respecting tradition. For many it has became a place for deep contemplation of the meaning of life and death.

Ricky Gervais: Controversy "irrelevant to me"

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

Ricky Gervais said on Friday he has already come up with jokes against "specific targets" for his weekend Golden Globes Award hosting gig--and that he will stand by every gag.

But the comedian said he had felt no enmity with any of the A-list Hollywood stars who will be attending Sunday's televised awards dinner and ceremony, and knew no-one who was upset by his acerbic comments last year.

"I know what I'm going to say outside the odd ad lib. I can justify it. I stand by it as I do every joke I did last year," Gervais told reporters.

But he kept mum about which celebrities would feel his acid tongue on his third stint at hosting the Golden Globes. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Meryl Streep are among the nominees and are expected to attend.

Saudi hacker publishes new details of Israeli credit cards in second assault

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

The young Saudi who goes under the alias, Ox Omar, who hacked Israeli accounts and published details of 18,000 credit cards on Tuesday, released a new list of 11,000 Israeli credit cards on Saturday according to Al Arabiya and Reuters.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, the hacker Omar said the newly released information includes names, telephone numbers and addresses of credit card holders and he promised to expose another back of 80,000 credit cards.

Omar said that he is determined to financially and socially hurt Israel.

"This is only the beginning and you will see that I will leak information of other credit cards that contain detailed information of Israelis, in addition to military and technical documents," the hacker who is only 19-years-old told the newspaper.

"Israel attacks and kills innocent Palestinians and commits genocide against them in addition to the international law violation," he added.

Asked to comment on whether he thought he was hurting Israeli Arabs, he dismissed the notion that Arabs live in Israel adding that "Arabs live in occupied Palestine and Israel is a just part of the Palestinian occupied state...Arabs is Israel should help in getting rid of the occupation."

The young hacker told the newspaper that he has purchased items totaling $200,000 from the credit cards he has hacked into over the last two years. The Bank of Israel was looking into the incident a spokesman said.

Israel on alert

Israeli officials said on Friday they were concerned the country may be under cyber attack after a wave of credit card code thefts, Reuters reported.

Israeli officials say the hacker has also released e mail addresses and passwords but have yet to confirm where he is based. "This incident should be treated as a cyber attack," Justice Ministry Official Yoram Hacohen told the Ma'ariv daily.

The data theft was one of the worst that Israel has said it has faced and while the financial damage was reportedly minimal, the breaches have heightened concerns about the potential use of stolen information by Israel's enemies.

"These matters are worrisome," Science and Technology Minister Dan Herskowitz told Israel Radio, calling the incident a "sample of the great danger out in cyberspace."