Two young Israel Defense Forces majors, Oron and Liron, got married Wednesday might, at a wedding hall on Moshav Beit Hanan. Oron is the representative of the IDF Spokesman in the Central Command; Liron is the assistant to Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. The latter came to the wedding, but returned to work later that evening. Exactly what he did, and who helped him do it, is unknown. Hours later, the Syrians made their announcement and Israel maintained an official silence, which it is still maintaining 72 hours later.

The world has grown accustomed to media deluges, and to appearance being more important than substance. In such a world, this silence is a surprising, if transitory, change. The dam can break at any time, allowing the words to pour forth. For one moment, the reality is perceived as less dangerous than its reflection. The Middle East was revealed as a place where blows can be traded, even below the belt if the film is a silent one, without an insulting and embarrassing soundtrack egging on the participants.

An old lesson, set aside long ago for reasons of political correctness, has prohibited the use of old-fashioned terms tainted with arrogance such as "Arab pride" - a cousin to "Oriental imagination." In 1964, Peter Naffsinger published an article in the CIA journal about personal, tribal and national prestige - "saving face" - as an important concept for Westerners to understand. Shame and embarrassment, he noted, as many experts had before, shape behavior in Muslim society and in Asia. In such cultures, it is prohibited to admit one's mistakes. Consequences may be deemed acceptable that elsewhere would be considered a loss (and in the East, they can be attributed to God's will), as long as they do not involve humiliation.