Here is one of the more astonishing facts of an already fairly astonishing war: The tunnels that Hamas has dug under Gaza's border with Israel — tunnels designed not for commerce, but for kidnapping — reportedly contain tranquilizers and handcuffs, seemingly meant to be used by Hamas terrorists to gain physical control over Israelis they've seized.

I sometimes find it tiring to listen to Israeli spokesmen ask the same question over and over again: What would you want your leaders to do if your country's enemies were firing rockets at your home?

The answer these spokesmen seek doesn't come entirely easily these days. This is in part because much of the world suffers from a kind of Hamas-specific amnesia, in which the group's past deeds (hundreds of murdered Israelis) and extreme goals are forgotten as soon as they are learned. But it's also in part because the success of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system complicates the whole subject a bit.