Though saying I'm not a fan of the organization would be a gigantic understatement, I must admit that Hamas scored a major PR victory today when masked gunmen knocked down most of the fence dividing the West Bank town of Rafah, which Israel closed (let's be honest: caged) last week, allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to flood into Egypt for much-needed supplies.

This was a very media-savvy move. Since this action, unlike many undertaken by Hamas, killed no Israeli civilians, and since it directly attacked the centerpiece of Israel's human rights issues (that is, restricting the movement of Palestinians), the resultant media attention did something rare: It put the plight of Palestinians themselves right near the top of the story. If you're a journalist or an editor with a Middle East beat, you have to cover this story, since it's a major one. But unlike in other instances where there is wiggle room to favor one story (Israeli civilians being killed) over another (Palestinian civilians being killed), in this case there's nothing to report on but the fact that 1) Palestinians in Rafah were suffering, and 2) someone figured out a way to address this suffering.

This is an obvious, trite, overly simplified thing to say, but it's true: If Hamas and its ilk spent more time working on operations like this, and less time sponsoring suicide bombers and rocket attacks, it would be harder for the world to continue ignore what's going on in the territories.