Israel's social media offensives -- on Twitter and on YouTube -- in the days since the start of air attacks in Gaza includes attempts that seemed aim at winning the war of public opinion on the idea that the military operation is a reasonable response to Palestinian rocket attacks and is targeted solely at Hamas properties and assets.

I wrote last week about Colleen Graffy, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, and her penchant for Twitter. She's using Twitter exactly how I think professionals should be using it: she mixes her message with personality. I praised her for trying a new form of communication, but when it comes to whether it is actually effective, I could only speculate.

Graffy's editorial in today's Washington Post provides actual evidence that Twittering makes her a better diplomat (emphasis added):

Communicating in this peppy, informal medium helped to personalize my visit and enhance my impact as a U.S. official. When I met with students at the University of Bucharest, and later with Moldovan bloggers, we were connected before I even arrived. One young Romanian student said: "We feel like we already know you -- you are not some intimidating government official. We feel comfortable talking with you."

Barack Obama has been breaking a lot of hearts, 140 missing characters at a time. The official @BarackObama Twitter account has gone entirely dark in recent weeks, with nary a tweet since about 18 hours after the election was called in his favor. But here's a chance at improvement...State Department diplomat Colleen Graffy has been in our sights for tweeting everything from her travels to Armenia to her tips on when Bad, Bath, and Beyond coupons expire. (They don'!) She's now answering her critics...The Nation's Ari Melber has a rundown of the (sometimes competing) visions of what's next for the energy and networked infrastructure the campaign gave rise to...and more.

Yeah, we probably should have seen this coming from a mile away. The Obama transition launched a series of house parties and community events to be held between now and the first of the year, focused on gathering together Americans interested in health care reform. And you know you, as it turns out, has a rather keen interest in the topic? Health care industry figures, from insurers like Aetna to drug companies like Pfizer and Merck...Al Giordano is one tough grader. Giordano, proprietor of The Field blog, gives the presidential transition team a big ol' F for its Open for Questions effort, dinging them for delivering "gimmickry, sloganeering, curt and almost snide 'responses'"...The liberal online organization MoveOn is often criticized for being a top-down effort that taps in to our collective desire to exert minimal effort and still stay politically engaged. But the group has put out a call to members to participate in a week-long agenda-setting process...and more.

Change.gov's Open for Questions feature opened for business just yesterday morning, as I reported. Already, its first scandal! A few dozen queries about the suddenly infamous deal-making governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, are being "censored," writes Politico's Ben Smith...The Obama campaign has been hitting its email list plenty hard over the last few days, hawking, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, everything from $35 four-year calendars to a rather cute knit cap, yours for $25 or more...Former Clinton Administration Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who knows a thing or two about uncomfortable White House sexual situations, says on VanityFair.com that a recent Facebook photo of Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau fondling a cardboard version of a certain member of his boss's cabinet-to-be, "is no laughing matter"...and much more.

The Democratic side of the House Energy and Commerce Committee under John Dingell (for now) has issued a 110-page condemnation of the reign of Bush-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin...We know -- you've been dying for a mobile tool that tells you up-to-the-minute federal stats on the UV index in your city. You're in luck!...If you pay attention to these things, you get the sense that no one in the Obama campaign ever really did a head count in its much-celebrated Internet shop...and more.

The anonymous Egyptian youth activist with the Shabab 6 April movement at today's Alliance for Youth Movements Summit at Columbia University law school had a bone to pick with Facebook, but reserved his ire for the American government. It's bad enough that Facebook's group restrictions -- limits on how active members can be, restrictions on booting troublemakers out -- make organizing tricky. But he had far harsher words for the United States government's support of the reign of Hosni Mubarak. Why, he asked, was the U.S. so committed to perpetuating a repressive government against the wishes of that country's citizenry?

It wasn't just a rhetorical question. In the audience was James Glassman, U.S. Under Secretary of State, and Washington's self-appointed point person on Public Diplomacy 2.0.