It’s now pretty much confirmed that the Israeli airstrike in Syria last month targeted a nuclear facility.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.

The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. The Bush administration was divided at the time about the wisdom of Israel’s strike, American officials said, and some senior policymakers still regard the attack as premature.

Those are the kinds of “senior policymakers” who would continue counseling restraint right up to the day when a new sun rose over Tel Aviv. By striking this reactor project before it even had a chance to go online, Israel sent a powerful message to Syria and the other Arab states.

And of course, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei were nowhere to be found while Syria was secretly working on nuclear weapons.