Madonna, who is performing in Israel in a few weeks, is speaking out about her devotion to Kabbalah.

In an exclusive first-person piece for Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth, Madonna says the mystical Jewish teachings have provided her with the light.

"All the puzzle pieces started falling into place," she writes. "Life no longer seemed like a series of random events. I started to see patterns in life. I woke up. I began to be conscious of my words and my actions and to really see the results of them. I also began to see that being Rich and Famous wasn't going to bring me lasting fulfillment and that it was not the end of the journey; that it was the beginning of the journey."

Faced with an ongoing United Nations investigation of its winter military offensive in Gaza, the Israeli government has released an exhaustive defense of the three-week campaign to destabilize Hamas and bring an end to rocket attacks on southern Israel.

The 163-page report offers the most detailed Israeli defense of the controversial military campaign that ravaged parts of the Gaza Strip and ended with 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

For the first time, the Israeli government states (page 118) that is is looking into more than 100 cases of potential wrongdoing and details specific cases it is examining, including allegations that Israeli soldiers repeatedly used Palestinian civilians as human shields, allegations that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinian civilians carrying white flags and allegations that Israeli use of white phosphorus shells killed Palestinian civilians.

Israel said it is conducting 13 criminal investigations into allegations of looting and use of civilians as human shields.

The Israeli report (page 82) also details the military's rules-of-engagement in Gaza.

While some Israeli soldiers said they had broad leeway to use tough tactics and accused their military commanders of leading them into a "moral twilight zone," the analysis states that there were clear rules-of-engagement for Gaza.

According to the report, the Israeli military had four overarching rules:

1. Military Necessity: “An attack shall be permitted as long as it is necessary to achieve a military purpose in the course of the military campaign,” subject to the other principles and rules set forth.

2. Distinction: “Strikes shall be directed against military objectives and combatants only. It is absolutely prohibited to intentionally strike civilians or civilian objects (in contrast to incidental proportional harm).”

3. Proportionality: “A legitimate military objective may be attacked even if the strike would cause incidental harm to civilians or civilian objectives, provided that the expected harm to civilians or civilian objects, or a combination thereof, would not be excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated.”

4. Humanity: “When legitimate military target is attacked, superfluous suffering to enemy combatants shall be avoided. In this context, only legal weapons, which were approved by the relevant authorities within the IDF, shall be employed.”

The rules go on to state that:

Only military targets shall be attacked.

Any attack against civilian objectives shall be prohibited.

A 'civilian objective' is any objective which is not a military target. In case of doubt, the forces are obliged to regard an object as civilian.

When a civilian objective is used by the enemy for a military activity it loses its protection and immunity and becomes a legitimate military target. Nevertheless, when striking such a target, special care shall be taken to adhere to the principle of proportionality.

Using press reports and its own intelligence, the Israeli report also provides exhaustive details on Hamas use of civilian areas to stage attacks, use of mosques to store weapons, and booby trapped buildings.

The report also offers a strong defense of the military's decision to attack Gaza police compounds on the first day of the war, a surprise strike that killed scores of Palestinian police officers.

Human rights groups have questioned the attack on the police, with some arguing that the police were not legitimate targets.

But the Israeli report argues (page 89), that the police forces were made up of Hamas militants who also were prepared to fight Israel, making them legitimate targets.

God is now on Twitter.

When Hamas won political control of the Palestinian Authority in the 2006 elections, there were widespread fears that the new leaders would impose conservative Islamic values on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But those fears proved to be largely unfounded at the time.

Three years later, with the West Bank controlled by a pro-Western caretaker government of questionable legitimacy and the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas militants who routed Fatah fighters in 2007, there are new signs that Hamas is moving to impose conservative values on the Gaza Strip.

Over the weekend, Gaza's top judge said that he has ordered female attorneys to wear headscarves in court.

 "We will not allow people to corrupt morals," Judge Abdul-Raouf Halabi told the AP. "This (dress code) will improve work in the courts."

The decision follows news that Hamas vice squads have been stepping up patrols and new steps by border guards to prevent visitors from bringing booze into Gaza.

Now, Fares Akram reports, Hamas virtue police are taking to the streets with posters and signs to encourage conservative Islamic virtue.

"The employee of Hamas' ministry of religious affairs showed a poster of Satan looking at a girl wearing a headscarf but a tight shirt and pants," Akram reported today for China's Xinhua news agency.

"'This is a 100 percent devilish dress,'" the man said about the clothes most of the Gazan girls wear. "'The Satan promoted to her that this is a legal Islamic clothing.'"

Gaza has always been more conservative than the West Bank. There are no movie theaters. You won't find Palestinian women at the beach in bikinis. And no restaurants or stores sell alcohol.

But it is not a Saudi-style society. Single women and men can meet for coffee and dinner. Plenty of women choose not to wear a head scarf. Lots of women work. And many Palestinians in Gaza are against imposing conservative values on their society.

The latest move by the courts is drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, which called the dress code order illegal.

"This decision constitutes a violation of the law and an unjustified intervention into lawyers' affairs," the group said, "It also undermines personal freedoms and women's rights."

It's time for Osama: The Irreverent Musical.

Tom Trager and Or Paz, the two young Israeli creators of "Ahmed and Salim," the irreverent and provocative on-line animated series starring two teenage Arab boys who are reluctantly being raised by their maniacal father to be terrorists, are back with their latest installment.

In the seventh episode, Ahmed and Salim are thrown out of terrorism school (for playing on their iPhone) and sent to Afghanistan to train with Osama bin Laden.

Rather than being a wild-eyed madman, Osama is an effeminate cook who guides Ahmed and Salim on a crude musical journey that ends up painting Islam, Christianity and Judaism as ridiculous fairy tales.

With a camel on the piano and an orchestra with Jewish violinists, the tap dancing Osama explains to Ahmed and Salim how to be good terrorists.

In crude and simplistic terms, Osama mocks the three monotheistic religions and is returning the boys to their father when he runs into some problems in the finale of the nine-minute cartoon.

The young creators are admittedly heavily influenced by "South Park," but their cartoons lack the intellectual sophistication of that hit American series.

The seventh episode, like the others, appears designed as much to provoke an angry reaction (by showing, for example God coming down from heaven on a cloud to graphically impregnate the Virgin Mary).

But the latest cartoon also demonstrates the creators' superficial understanding of the religions they mock.

As noted before, "Ahmed and Salim" has a cult following, but it also viewed by critics as a misguided series that flops in its attempt to use humor to satirize the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The latest episode is unlikely to change any minds on either side.

The Economist has a special report in its current edition on the Arab world: "Waking from its sleep."

The magazine examines the state of the Arab world and argues that "the old pattern of Arab government—corrupt, opaque and authoritarian—has failed on every level and does not deserve to survive."

"Behind the political stagnation of the Arab world a great social upheaval is under way, with far-reaching consequences," the magazine states.

"The Arab world faces chronic problems, but its people are no longer docile or passive," the series concludes. "They are starting to speak out, to strike, even to take to the streets in pursuit of their demands. But a revolution? 'You need an occasion for a revolution,' notes Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Centre in Beirut. 'The volcano is there, but it is held in place by the heavy mountain of the Arab state, which oppresses its people very well and has learned how to play the game of elections.' Will change come? Some day."

Many people have a chance in their lifetimes to see the changing the guard at London's Buckingham Palace.

Few are privileged enough to see the changing of the Sword of Talking Points and Shield of Voicemail.

Last night, at a diplomatic home near humid Tel Aviv, at few dozen folks were able to bear witness to this rare transition of American power.

For it was in the grassy back yard that Stewart Tuttle, the longtime spokesman for the US embassy in Israel, passed on the a few key items to his successor, Kurt Hoyer.

In a moment filled with pomp-and-circumstance, Stewart stood before the hushed crowd and invoked the spirit of Prince Phillip in Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty."

In the film, the prince uses the magical Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue to kill the evil sorceress and rescue Sleeping Beauty.

Lacking those magical items, Stewart instead bestowed upon his successor some decidedly unique PR alternatives.

First came the Shield of Voicemail, a small, flimsy aluminum foil-coated, three-pointed shield (apparently made of thin cardboard) meant to protect Hoyer from intrepid journalists.

The Shield of Voicemail, Stewart said, was to be wielded to deflect assaults "when you know what they're calling about -- and have absolutely no answers."

The Shield of Voicemail might not be very sturdy, Stewart admitted, but it might succeed in holding off the persistent louts (my words, not his) for a while.

Second came the Sword of Talking Points, a floppy (apparently plastic) two-foot weapon intended to cleave aggressive hacks (also my words, not his) into pieces.

Stewart said the weapon came with a warning:

"It is not Excalibur," said Stewart. "It is a blunt instrument."

The Sword of Talking Points and Shield of Voicemail would not save Captain America, but Stewart assured his successor that they might be strong enough to get him through the posting with only flesh wounds...

"Kosher porn" is coming to Israel.

Celebrated American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (director of the "Kill Bill" movies, "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs") is heading to Israel this fall for the Israeli premiere of his surreal new World War II flick, "Inglourious Basterds."

The movie stars Brad Pitt as an American officer who brings a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers to occupied-France during World War II to scalp Nazis.

The film received mixed reviews when it had its debut earlier this year at Cannes.

At the time, director Eli Roth, who worked on the film, described it as "kosher porn."

The Guardian called "Inglourious Basterds" an "armor-plated turkey from hell."

"It is achtung-achtung-ach-mein-Gott atrocious," the review states. "It isn't funny; it isn't exciting; it isn't a realistic war movie, yet neither is it an entertaining genre spoof or a clever counterfactual wartime yarn."

Time Magazine called it a "misfire."

For movie fans, though, the announcement raises a more important question: Will the film debut lure Brangelina to Israel?

Here's the trailer for the film:

Gaza doctor Ezzeldin Abuelaish, who lost three daughters and a niece when Israeli forces fired on his home in one of the most tragic events of Israeli winter military offensive, is heading for Canada:

Leaving the Pain Behind

Ma’ariv

by Arik Weiss

A few hours before he boards the plane that would take him and his children far away from the conflict and its bitter memories, Dr. Ezzeldin Abuelaish tries to stay optimistic.

His life fell apart one night during operation Cast Lead, when an IDF tank shell killed three of his daughters, but he is encouraged by the support he got from the street.

And even though he chose to leave and live in distant Canada for a few years, he is confident that he will return and hopes for a better future in the region.

“Even before the tragedy I got two job offers, one from the University of Haifa and the second from the University of Toronto, and both I and the children preferred to move to Haifa, but after what happened to us it was eventually decided, eventually, that Canada was a better idea,” he told Ma’ariv a few hours before he left the country. “Nobody should think that I am bailing out, I have more rights in this country than many others and I am the first who will return to Gaza when things improve. I can only hope that this will happen soon.”

The story of Dr. Abuelaish became, for many, a turning point in Israeli public opinion about the military operation in Gaza. Abuelaish, a senior gynecologist who worked at Tel Hashomer Hospital, lost three daughters when an IDF tank fired two shells that smashed the family home. 20 year old Bisan, 15 year old Maiar, and 14 year old Aya were killed on the spot in front of their family; his daughter Shadar, 17, sustained serious injuries.

Dr. Abuelaish, who during the fighting was interviewed by a number of Israeli media and even spoke out against Hamas policies in Gaza, called Channel Ten reporter Shlomi Eldar and begged for the lives of his children on the air.

The horrifying conversation presented the distress of the Gaza inhabitants in sharp focus, and led to agitated responses in the Israeli street and around the world.

“Until now, there was not a single official Israeli representative who called to apologize for what happened,” said Dr. Abuelaish. “Not Shimon Peres, not Ehud Barak, not Olmert and not anyone else—but that doesn’t bother me. I have no anger at the leadership, because of the tremendous support that I have gotten from the people on the street. Israelis, Muslims, Druze, everyone arrives to talk, to console. I think that this is the nice side of my difficult tragedy, my story touched people, it made a difference in them. Even though they did not see me, they only heard my outcry on the air, that was enough for people. With all of the chaos and pain, this tragedy also did a good thing: it exposed the irrational cruelty of the war to both sides, it proved that people can also look at what happened with compassion.”

In the months that passed since the operation, Dr. Abuelaish has been living on the line between reconstructing the ruins of his home in Gaza and caring for his daughter Shadar, who was hospitalized in Israel.

Just prior to his departure, he insists that the conclusions of the IDF inquiry are not accurate.

The IDF took responsibility for firing the shells, but in the inquiry it was claimed that gunfire originated next to the house.

“I heard endless stories before and after the inquiry, they said that someone fired from within the house, and they said that Hamas were the ones who shot at us—these are all stories,” he said bitterly. “Eventually, the truth comes out like the sunlight, but this entire inquiry was done behind a screen and they did not show me anything beyond the final conclusions, but I can say that no one shot from near my house, and there were no snipers there. An inquiry cannot tell you what really happened there: the fear of the soldiers who are in Gaza during the war, the lack of trust between Israelis and Arabs.”

“I thought to use the money from the compensation that I would get for what happened to me to improve the situation, to donate it to a fund to promote education for girls and women in the Middle East, but no one offered me any compensation. There was courage to take partial responsibility, but no more than that. It is a shame, but it is time to look forward, and that is what my family is doing now.”

The situation in Gaza, he says, has not returned to normal since the IDF operation ended. “Gaza today is like a patient who has undergone surgery that suddenly ran into complications, and now his situation is rapidly deteriorating. Everything around is still destroyed, and people are more despairing because they do not see the end approaching, they do not see any hope.”

Despite all this, it is important for Dr. Abuelaish to clarify that he is not running away and not abandoning Gaza or his work in Israel. “One of my conditions for accepting the job in Canada was that for a few months in the year I will arrive in Israel and continue working here in Tel Hashomer Hospital,” he declares. “It is important for me to work here and it is important for me to live here, and I hope that within five years the situation in Gaza and in Israel will get better.”

He knows, one needs a lot of optimism to believe in such a scenario.

“What do we have left in life other than optimism?” he asks. “My daughter received her matriculation exam grades two days ago, and that made the entire family happy—she got an average of 95. I brought all of her textbooks and notebooks to the hospital and she did all of her studies during the treatments, and she succeeded.”

“If my daughter taught me one thing in this story,” he concludes, “is that it is possible to overcome everything, you just have to put in just a little more effort. Maybe by the time we come back, they will learn that here.”

An Israeli cell phone ad that uses the towering concrete separation wall cutting through the West Bank as a focal point has angered Palestinian activists who have demanded that the company stop showing the commercial.

The ad, featuring Israeli soldiers on patrol who end up playing soccer with unseen Palestinians on the other side of the wall, is now generating a growing series of responses.

In the original Cellcom ad, the announcer says: "After all what are we all after? Just a little fun."

But critics noted that the wall is no amusing backdrop.

Over the weekend, demonstrators at a volatile weekly protest against the wall brought a soccer ball to kick over the barbed wire towards the soldiers.

As might be expected, the soldiers did not gather around and kick the ball back. In fact, the soccer ball ends up sitting amid the barbed wire as soldiers fire tear gas at the activists.

The original ad is also drawing a tart response from Israeli filmmakers who say the ad company stole their 2007 idea, which featured a group of Israelis trying to play volleyball with unseen Palestinians on the other side of the wall. The volleyball gag was posted on YouTube:

The Axis Mundi blog at Reuters also noted that the idea of playing soccer over the wall was featured in this World Cup ad earlier this year:

The have been several other alternative takes on the ad. This one shows the Israeli soldiers hitting a bound demonstrator with the soccer ball: