In March 1963, Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Tzvi Tzur summoned a young second lieutenant serving in a secret Military Intelligence (MI) unit and awarded him a chief of staff citation. The second lieutenant, Ehud Barak, was praised for "the exemplary execution of a mission that contributed to the security of the state." Just like that, with no extra details about what, how and especially where Barak did what he did.

In its 60th year, Israel is looking back with yearning at its early decades, at the silence of the radio, at the editing of the news in the Prime Minister's Office and at the Defense Ministry. According to the Syrian Army spokesman, whose statement was followed by a plethora of foreign reports that at times were just plain strange, two weeks ago (minus one day) Israel Air Force planes entered deep into Syrian air space, where they "made a crater" the size of the one at Ramon, as one hyperbolic report would have us believe.

Barak, now defense minister, has ordered total silence, just as in the old days when he would switch off his two-way radio well before reaching the front lines so the nervous senior command could not recall him before the mission got underway. With a single order, which is being strictly enforced over civilians and soldiers alike, the entire country has become Sayeret Matkal [the General Staff's elite special-operations forces that Barak once commanded]: seven million Israelis impersonating a blonde bombshell and driving a black Mercedes [a reference to one of Barak's covert roles and to the 1976 Entebbe rescue, respectively].