At six in the evening Tuesday, and while Christiane Amanpour was dropping her CNN bomb, Major General Eliezer Shkedi, chief of the air force, was milling about the yard at the air force center in Herzliya, shaking hands with airmen who excelled during the Second Lebanon War. The media had come in numbers but they did not succeed in getting anything out of Shkedi, besides a lukewarm greeting for the New Year.

Will the new year really be better than the last one? A lot depends on the impact of that air strike that Syria claimed occurred in the north of the country six days ago. Even if Amanpour's report is not completely accurate, the fog surrounding the circumstances of the attack is beginning to lift. Even more important than the details of the incident is the fact that CNN, an international media outlet, has lifted the gauntlet and tried to solve the mystery. It is now a matter of time before the main elements of the story are released to the media.

Both the Syrian and the Israeli leadership have been extraordinarily silent about this. According to European diplomats, the Syrians have made it clear that Israeli silence over the incident is "worthy."