Remember when North Korea was building a nuclear reactor in Syria right in the middle of diplomatic negotiations over its weapons program? That is, until Israeli war planes struck. Call this the "mini-me" version of that incident... For Syria has another rogue friend the White House is looking to deal with.

Last Wednesday, in a predawn raid about 100 miles off Israel's coast, Israeli Special Forces intercepted the Francop, an Antiguan flagged container ship in route to Syria. Onboard? Weapons. Lots of them -- over 500 tons. Onboard, Israel's version of Navy SEALs uncovered mortars, hand grenades, crates of ammunition for Kalashnikov rifles, and 3,000 Katyusha rockets. I saw the destruction that 4,000 of these rockets did to Israel during the 34 day war with Hezbollah in 2006. Out of 300 containers - many stamped "Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines" - 36 had weapons hidden underneath less threatening cargo. Some rockets were stamped with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard logo. It took two days to unload the lot. In a slide show presentation on Capitol Hill today, an Israeli Naval Attaché noted that the Syrian Army hasn't used these types of shells since the 1970s. 

The weapons surely were headed to Hezbollah. Documents onboard indicate they originated in Iran before being shipped to the Egyptian port of Damietta. From there, they were transferred on to the Francop and bound for Syria. From Syria, getting the weapons to Hezbollah, which has rebuilt its bunker positions under the nose of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, would be a snap. The Syrian foreign minister, then in Tehran, complained that "pirates" had disrupted legitimate trade between the two countries. I guess he forgot that Iran is under a U.N. arms export ban.

Alarmingly, one Israeli general said the 500 tons of weapons were a "drop in the sea" compared to what's believed to be reaching Hezbollah. Indeed, in recent months, Hezbollah munitions caches in southern Lebanon have blown sky-high (under mysterious circumstances) giving dramatic evidence of the build-up. A former senior Israeli security official calledthis sea seizure "tactically insignificant," unless "Israel manages to use this event to change the perception in the international community" as to what is transpiring between Iran and Hezbollah.   

Israel knows better than to count on the "international community." With North Korea, even U.S. diplomats willfully overlooked its blatant nuclear proliferation in their "zeal for the deal." Now, the Obama Administration is negotiating over Iran's nuclear program. The sad reality is that this weapons interception, impressive as it was, is likely just a minor setback for Hezbollah.