As predicted, wrapping up the war now will allow news of its aftermath and the inevitable tallying-up of the destruction wrought to be overshadowed by wall-to-wall coverage of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, the child Obamas, the inaugural balls, the crazy DC traffic, the Obama move into the White House, the residual bitching of Bush staffers, the scramble for post-presidential interviews of various Bush officials, Obama's accomplishments on his first day in office, the Obama plan for the first 100 days, and the initiation of Congressional squabbling over the Obama agenda.

Good timing, PR-wise. For Israel. [Breitbart]

Last March, at the SXSW Interactive Web conference, Zuckerberg spoke at length about how the connections Middle Eastern youth make on Facebook could lead them away from religious extremism. It's a theme he's returned to time and again. But how Zuckerberg thinks they're going to connect when his site's not even letting them talk isn't clear. Users report that posts are getting deleted apparently for even mentioning words like "Gaza" or "Palestine."

What's curious about the claims of censorship is that censors are supposed to have an agenda. If Facebook has one, it seems to be against anything vaguely controversial: Both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian forces are outraged by mysterious deletions of Facebook content mentioning the current crisis.

What's really going on? The site's self-policing mechanisms, which allow users to report "inappropriate content," seem to be to blame. The flagging system, meant to prevent the posting of porn where minors can see it, is easily abused by people with a political agenda. And with only 800 employees overseeing 140 million users, it's impossible for Facebook customer service to keep up with all the disputes.

It's a perfect illustration of Zuckerberg's twisted-up ambitions. On the one hand, he wants Facebook to be a reflection of the real world, as it is: a reflection of our real social relationships, and perhaps our very emotions. And yet he also wants to make it a better place. Giving people on Facebook a free hand to censor each others' words serves neither end.

Of course, everyone's against censorship until they're for it. Here's something that will likely offend the true believers on both sides of the conflict — the tales of Saar Netanel, a gay Israeli Jerusalem city council member, and Bodi, a Palestinian drag performer who claims Hamas is hounding him out of the country:

(Photo by AP/Eyad Baba)

It's brand new as of yesterday. What they're (they = the Israeli Defense Forces' Spokesperson's Unit) using it for is to, well, show instances of successful bombings in Gaza. Because, you know, they're doing that whole fighting with Hamas thing again. Apparently YouTube administrators took down one particularly graphic video, but the IDF remains committed to showing horrible bombings to drum up some positive PR. The channel's profile reads:

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the Israel Defense Forces' professional body responsible for media and public relations in Israel and around the world. This is our new site that will help us bring our message to the world.

We are saddened that YouTube has taken down some of our exclusive footage showing the IDF's operational success in operation Cast Lead against Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip. As the State of Israel again faces those who would see it destroyed, it is imperative that we in the IDF show the world the inhumanity directed against us and our efforts to stop it. It is also worth noting that one of the videos removed had the highest number of hits (over 10,000) at the time of its removal.

As if, I dunno, the message wasn't yet clear enough or loud enough or bomby enough, now it's got to be distorted and distilled through the fanciful and dirty medium of baby laughs and cat farts and swoony video tributes to Nick Jonas. It's all a little flip, this treatment of strife and warfare and existences blown sky high.

And did I mention the user comments? Whooo boy.

The dead-quiet week between Christmas and New Year's is the perfect time to rattle sabers, knowing they will dominate headlines. Journalists in the West, having gorged themselves on carols of peace, are primed to report on the shock of war.

Even though these wars are not particularly shocking. Pakistan and India have been shooting at each other across a Kashmiri glacier on and off for decades; a mere movement of troops to their common border, while attention-getting, is not particularly notable. And not long ago, Israel was engaged in an actual war in Lebanon, compared to which the rocket launches and airstrikes in Gaza don't amount to much. The deaths, while horrible, are not more horrible than the many that preceded them. Gaza is in agony, but, sad to say, its agony is an eternality.

There will be handwringing about the many challenges that face President-elect Barack Obama, who sits, literally powerless, in Hawaii, isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But are these challenges really any worse than what has gone before? They make a handy tale of overcoming the odds after Obama takes office next month. But a troubled world is not news. It is just the world.