Fact #3: Things are still bad in Gaza, ugly between Israel and Hamas, and terrible in most every Middle Eastern country.

The ceasefire's not a permanent solution to all this tension. Israel's government may take an even harder foreign policy line if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wins January's elections, Hamas wants to keep arming itself, and both sides think the other side committed war crimes.

Also, with the Gaza mess on pause, the other Palestinians in the West Bank are saying "Why don't we bug the UN about recognizing us as a country, which Israel will HATE, because this seems like the time for more Israeli-Palestinian tension."

And when you're considering Gaza, don't forget that the entire Middle East is one big, strange set of relationships.

Syria's horrible civil war (est. March 2011) rages on. That violence and tension occasionally spills into Turkey and could get worse. Lebanon's security forces are running around disarming anti-Israel rockets in their country because apparently making those things is 2012's hottest trend. Jordan's monarchy is handling waves of Syrian refugees along with growing popular unrest because it's illegal to criticize the king. And don't forget about how fun things are right now in Saudi Arabia for ladies, in Iraq for Kurds, and in Iran for…well, all of us.

Plus, do you remember that Egyptian President who mediated the Gaza ceasefire? He seemed cool, right? Well he went and issued a decree exempting himself from any legal checks on his Presidential power THE VERY NEXT DAY. He says it's a temporary measure to smooth out the country's post-Mubarak period, but thousands of protesters disagree.

So Gaza's temporarily not-terrible, but the Middle East as a whole is a mess. If you want to help, stay informed about what's going on there and donate to organizations providing humanitarian aid to the refugees. And beyond that? Well it's a huge geopolitical problem, so maybe just try to stay happy. Because you can always grab yourself a friend and say: