Jerusalem----September 20.....Madonna came, saw and conquered Israel in a five day Rosh Hashana holiday visit. A trek that many Israelis will never forget. The famed singer and actress arrived Wednesday night to celebrate the Jewish New Year and study Kabala (Jewish mysticism) in a hotel opposite the disco - Dofinarium, the site of one of the worst Palestinian terror attacks Israel has suffered.

Back in March, Caresse Henry, the singer's longtime manager, stated: "We are pleased to confirm the rumors. Madonna will be touring during the coming summer and fall," This would have been Madonna's second performance in Israel. Her first was in October 1993. But shortly after the announcement, Madonna canceled the tour to Israel. According to news reports, Madonna initially "freaked out" when she learned of a threat to her children, but decided to go ahead with the performances. She again changed her mind, when she received letters containing details about her two children, aged 7 and 3.

The reports quoted an associate of the singer as saying that Madonna was "not ready to take chances with her kids."

The threats were apparently delivered to Madonna's office in Los Angeles. According to The Sun, they also "displayed in-depth knowledge" about the singer's aides. Madonna said that she had canceled three Israeli stops on her "Re-Invention" tour because of violence in the region, including the killing of the leader of the terror group Hamas.

Madonna, told "Access Hollywood" that her manager wouldn't let her travel to Israel because of the "attack on the leader of Hamas."

"It's not a good idea to go there and do concerts," she told the syndicated entertainment TV show in an interview that aired Monday.

Asked by "Access Hollywood" if she had been threatened, she replied: "No, if I had my way, I'd go. My manager wouldn't let me."

Madonna, who practices Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah, included provocative images in the tour, such as video footage of a Palestinian boy and an Israeli boy walking arm-in-arm, and simulated sex during a tango with a female dancer.

According to her official Web site, her tour has 56 security guards backstage. A total of 110 people travel with the tour, five of them musicians.

As the Israel News Agency predicted back then, Madonna would arrive in Israel in some sort of surprise package. And the "Material Girl" did eventually materialize. The INA is convinced that the FBI investigated the threats on her children while Israeli security assisted the FBI in making some arrests.

Madonna's exhausting 18-city "The Re-Invention Tour" which kicked off in Los Angeles, included shows in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta and Miami. Madonna then headed to London and Manchester followed by shows in Paris and Ireland. The final performance of the tour was held in Lisbon. But, true to her promise, her grand finale was Israel. There would be no singing, but rather a 5-day New Year's gift to Israel that would say to the world, "visit Israel, don't bow to Islamic terrorism, ignore US State Department warnings, keep our economies functioning".

Speaking at a gala event in Tel Aviv last night, which was aired live by Israeli television, Madonna attributed her hesitation to come to Israel to "so many news reports about terror attacks" and State Department travel warnings. Israel continues to ask the U.S. to remove its travel warning for tourists and businessmen planning trips to the country. A U.S. travel warning to Israel has a direct and damaging impact on Israel's economy. Israel has successfully hosted a number of High Tech events this year with many participants coming from Europe. Many U.S. Hi Tech executives were forced to cancel their plans to the Israeli business Hi-tech and VC events as they were refused travel insurance - a direct effect of the U.S. State Department travel warnings. But it appears that with or without travel insurance Madonna has brought many smiles to her fans in Israel.

"We are quite pleased that Madonna, one of the world's leading entertainers visited Israel this year," Ronn Torossian, spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Tourism told the Israel News Agency. "We hope and expect that millions of others will follow her lead to visit the religious, spiritual and cultural capital of the world."

The State Department, which was already warning against travel to the region, updated its travel advisory to Israel a few months ago in light of the targeted killing of Hamas master terrorist Ahmed Yassin.

The advisory urged all Americans to leave the Gaza Strip "as early as it is safe to do so" and advised Americans to defer travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

"I realize now that it is no more dangerous to be here than it is to be in New York," Madonna said.

Madonna benefited from special security precautions provided by the Israeli government and her own bodyguards who surrounded her and clashed with photographers. The hotel was closed to people who were not its guests, and a police motorcade accompanied her.

Madonna's complaint was about the paparazzi whom she claimed were "naughty."

At Sunday's gala event, an Israeli children's choir and a Palestinian sang to more than 1,000 people and Tourism Minister Gideon Ezra praised Madonna for having come to Israel.

Madonna, who is well known for her sensuous singing, acting and branding, has an intelligence quota rated at a genius level of 140 IQ. She illustrated that her intelligence outweighed her physical and seductive attributes, by defying both US State Department travel warnings and Palestinian Islamic terror threats. She wanted to see Israel, and Israelis yearned to see Madonna. But in the end, each side managed only a glimpse of the other. But it was an intense and lasting image. And for Madonna, it was a relaxing Mediterranean vacation after a very grueling tour.

Madonna joined some 2,000 fellow followers of cabala, a form of Jewish mysticism, and spent most of her five days here holed up in the luxurious David Inter-Continental Hotel, across the street from the Tel Aviv beachfront.

Her planned tour of Jewish holy sites was curtailed, most notably in the early hours of Sunday, when her heavily guarded convoy pulled into the stone plaza near the ancient Western Wall in Jerusalem in the early hours of the night. Madonna's security detail took no chances as they used basic security tactics including that of cover of darkness.

Despite the late hour, a large gathering of Jewish worshipers were taking part in Jewish New Year prayers. In addition, several dozen photographers were prowling the grounds. Madonna looked out the darkened windows of her van for several minutes as a crowd gathered around. The van then drove off without Madonna's ever opening the door. Other planned visits, including a trip to the tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel, which is in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, never took place.

Secular Israelis have been starved for big-name international acts in recent years and were ready to embrace Madonna, who sang here in 1993. But she came to pray, not to perform. She and her husband, the British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, took part in cabala sessions in the hotel's conference room, which was converted into a synagogue, with segregated men's and women's sections.

Madonna's only formal public appearance came Sunday night, when the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Center, which organized the trip, staged a children's program at the hotel that featured Jewish and Arab youths and drew more than 1,000 guests, including Israeli government officials.

Madonna has been exploring cabala since 1997 and now dresses and often performs with symbols of Judaism and cabala. She sometimes wears a Jewish star and often has a red thread on her wrist, a cabala trademark intended to ward off the evil eye.

When she visited a Tel Aviv restaurant, she wore a glittery necklace with a large letter E, apparently a reference to her recent adaptation of the biblical Jewish name Esther.

Madonna said she was not representing a religion. "I'm here as a student of cabala,'' she said. "A cabalist sees the world as a unified whole. A cabalist asks why. A cabalist believes that he or she has the responsibility to make the world a better place."

The Israeli government seized on the singer's visit for tourism promotion, and Tourism Minister Gideon Ezra presented her with a Byzantine-era oil lamp and a coin on Sunday. Earlier he had suggested that it would be helpful if Madonna would pose for a picture with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, though there was no sign that this materialized.

After the Friday night dinner in Tel Aviv, two of her bodyguards were arrested after scuffling with and injuring two photographers.

Just after midnight Saturday, she made a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem grave site of the cabalist sage Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.

Madonna and her husband, with police and photographers in tow, spent more than an hour inside the stone mausoleum. She prayed, chanted and placed candles on the tomb, and shortly before leaving wiped tears from her eyes.

While Madonna has studied cabala for seven years, there are still plenty of skeptics questioning her commitment to a form of study traditionally reserved for men over 40 who have mastered the Torah and the Talmud.

"It is forbidden to teach a non-Jew cabala," Yitzhak Kadouri, a leading cabalist, recently told the Israeli newspaper Maariv. But the Kabbalah Center says the cabala is open to all.

Madonna was born on August 16th, 1958 in Rochester, Michigan. She was the third child born to Madonna Louise and Tony Ciccone, and three other children followed soon after. Her father was a first generation Italian-American, and her mother was French Canadian. They were working class, and her mother, in addition to raising the growing family and doing the housework, also worked as an x-ray technician.
When Madonna was five and a half years old, her mother died of breast cancer. The family was torn apart Madonna and her siblings were sent to live with various relatives. However, three years later, Tony married their housekeeper.

Madonna resented her father's remarriage and could never bring herself to call Joan "mother." As the oldest daughter, much of the responsibility for raising the still growing family fell on her. "I felt like my adolescence was spent taking care of babies," she said. "I think that's when I really thought about how I wanted to get away from all that. I saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella."

In high school, she convinced her father to let her take dance instead of piano lessons. She was also involved in every school production, talent contest, and dance performance. She was also a straight A student, due largely to the fact that her father gave her fifty cents for every A she received on her report card. She scored well on standardized tests, with an IQ of 140.

Madonna speaks during a 'Spirituality for Kids' event, at the Kabbalah International Conference, held at the David Intercontinental Hotel, in Tel Aviv. Madonna spent five days in Israel for spiritual reasons, and has taken part in a convention for students and followers of the Kabbalah, an esoteric Jewish mysticism, which coincided with the Jewish New Year celebration. (AP Photo/Heidi Levine)

As a teenager, she went out to local gay bars with her dance teacher, Christopher Flynn. They became close friends, and he helped her get a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. However, she soon decided that this wasn't for her, and Christopher supported her in this decision.

She bought a one way ticket to New York, and on arrival, with $37 in her pocket, told a cab driver to take her to the center of everything. The fare was about a third of her remaining money. Since that cab ride Madonna has mesmerized the world with an outstanding and exciting list of accomplishments including the record and CD albums GHV2, Music, Ray of Light, Incognegro, Something to Remember, Girlie Show, The Immaculate Collection Bedtime Stories, Erotica, Like a Prayer, You Can Dance, Who's That Girl, Blond Ambition True Blue and like Like a Virgin.

Madonna's top singles include Die Another Day, Music, Ray of Light and Material Girl.

Madonna's acting portfolio includes several awards including an Academy Oscar for her appearances in Turner & Hooch, Die Another Day, Swept Away, The Hire, Madonna - What It Feels Like for a Girl, The Next Best Thing, Evita, Dick Tracy, Who's That Girl and Desperately Seeking Susan.

Madonna has not changed much in the last twenty years. Today, she told a pilot to "take me to the center of everything." The fare to Israel resulted in an Islamic death threat to her children's lives. Madonna has fortune and fame. She did not have to visit Israel. She is not a politician maneuvering for the Jewish vote. It was a spiritual visit. A vacation. No make-up, sets, deadlines, sound, lighting and special effects equipment. A personal reward for entertaining the world from LA to New York, from Manchester to Paris. It was keeping a promise with a tiny, democratic nation in the Middle-East which truly needed her youthful, vibrant moral and commercial support and an ancient, mystical world which she needed to touch for comfort.

She must have been grinning, smiling from ear to ear as upon her departure from Israel last night, hearing the news that the Israel Defense Forces had successfully killed a leading Hamas terrorist in Gaza with a precision missile strike on his car. Was it the Hamas terror organization which tried unsuccessfully to intimidate her or was it Islamic Jihad. Maybe the death threats came directly from Yasser Arafat in Rahmallah.
That was Israel's thank you to a very brave, peaceful and passionate woman. Madonna, who also knows how to confront terrorism through the dismantling of its most potent tool - fear.

The next time you hear the song "Who's That Girl," just remember Madonna as a fearless, highly talented woman who has the metallic guts of a global leader and the soft heart of a gifted Saint.

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY

MADONNA SITE