Yesterday, three weeks after fighting ceased and under great pressure from the United Nations, Israel announced it would end its sea and air embargo of Lebanon today at 6 p.m., with European forces set to take over Israeli positions. However, even as Lebanon’s seaports and airports come under guard by international forces, its border with Syria will remain a gaping hole in the arms embargo.

Last week it was reported that Israel would not end its blockade of Lebanon until “sufficient” forces were deployed along the Syrian border. But it seems Israel once again has been pressured to compromise: Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the land border “is still an open issue—it’s not resolved so far as Israel is concerned.” Israel, according to a senior Israeli official, has “an understanding” that international forces will be deployed along the border. Syria, however, has strongly opposed such a force.

Rather than a UN force to assist the Lebanese Army that currently patrols the Lebanon-Syria border, Syria has said it will help. After meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on September 1, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that the Syrian president would cooperate in the arms embargo. Syria agreed to help secure the border with Lebanon by increasing the number of guards deployed there and by establishing liaison mechanisms with the Lebanese Army and border police.

The idea is almost laughable: for Syria to patrol a border to stop its own arms shipments. Annan, however, apparently put stock in it.

The Israelis, of course, know better: “Syria is a regime that supports terror and hosts terror organizations …. If they are going to keep that promise, we welcome it. Unfortunately from our experience, we doubt it,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Yariv Ovadia.

With this agreement, the Syrian and Lebanese governments have won a small victory. Israel requested that UN troops be deployed on the Syria-Lebanon border to quell arms trafficking. Currently, no UN troops have been deployed to the border. If this situation stands, it leaves Syria and Lebanon to police their own mutual border. “The land border with Syria is the wild card and the real test of the arms embargo,” said the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mark Regev. So far, it appears to be the weakest link.

With Israel pulling out from southern Lebanon, Lebanese waters and air space being handed over to UN oversight—which has yet to prove itself—and the Lebanese-Syria border currently being patrolled solely by Lebanese forces, the Jewish state has already largely abandoned its commitment to stop arms shipments to Hezbollah, in spite of its own misgivings. Time will prove whether its replacements are effective. Like Israel’s foreign ministry, we doubt it.