"Like a Virgin," a dance tune that helped propel Madonna to stardom as risqué pop ingénue in the 1980s, was performed as a mournful cabaret with violin accompaniment. At one point, the singer was trussed up and hoisted into the air by four male dancers, then lowered onto a platform as though into a volcano - a virgin sacrifice.

For "Gang Bang," Madonna wrestled with armed intruders whom she then dispatched with a pistol - their "blood" spattering across an enormous video backdrop. In a routine for "Revolver", she wielded a Kalashnikov rifle, used by many modern-day insurgents, while one of her dancers favored an Israeli Uzi.

The exertions never sapped her confident singing, though she did become somewhat breathless during remarks to the audience at Ramat Gan stadium on Tel Aviv's outskirts.

"I chose to start my world tour in Israel for a very specific and important reason. As you know, the Middle East and all the conflicts that have been occurring here for thousands of years - they have to stop," she said to cheers.

A devotee of Jewish mysticism, Madonna had dubbed the first leg of her 28-country "MDNA" tour the "Peace Concert" and distributed free tickets to some of the Palestinians who attended from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Among them was a woman named Yasmine, who declined to give her last name in light of Palestinian calls to boycott the Madonna concert and other cultural events in Israel. She offered a mixed assessment of the show.