Analysis: Gaza Flare-up Is Over for Now; Next Up: Iran 
Haaretz

"The latest round of violence in Gaza wound down Monday morning more or less just like the preceding ones. The cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian organizations came into effect a few hours after initially being reported in Gaza, despite Israel’s repeated denials during the night on Sunday.”

Image: (Israelis take cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets from Gaza, during cross-border hostilities, in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon May 5, 2019. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen).

ADL study: Violence against Jews doubled last year
Religion News

"Violent attacks against U.S. Jews doubled in 2018, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s yearly audit of anti-Semitic incidents. Yet the report, published days after a synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif., that killed one woman and injured three other people, shows that despite the grim spike in violence against Jews, physical assaults remained relatively rare. Anti-Semitic harassment and vandalism are far more common."

Image: Students from the Yeshiva School in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar).

Christian persecution 'at near genocide levels'
BBC

“The persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near 'genocide' levels, according to a report ordered by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The review, led by the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, estimated that one in three people suffer from religious persecution. Christians were the most persecuted religious group, it found."

Image:  A damaged statue of the Virgin Mary after Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka (Reuters)

Israel plans to deport a U.S. human rights activist. Democrats are pushing back.
Washington Post

“A group of 17 Democratic lawmakers wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to ask his government to stop the planned deportation of Omar Shakir, a U.S. citizen and director of the Human Rights Watch office for Israel and the Palestinian territories."

Image: Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, at a hearing at the district court in Jerusalem on March 11 (Ammar Awad/Reuters).

Back from Middle East, Murphy has concerns about peace there
CT Mirror

“Sen. Chris Murphy has returned from a five-day trip to the Middle East with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney with the ‘sense’ that Israel’s Muslim neighbors have ‘low expectations’ for the Trump administration’s peace plan for the region, which has yet to be unveiled."

Image: Sens. Chris Murphy and Mitt Romney hold press conference (CTMirror)

Israeli court rules Palestinians may attend joint memorial
The Washington Post

“Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Israel and attend a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv this week…. Supreme Court Justice Anat Baron...wrote in her arguments that the joint memorial ceremony ‘brings together those who actively seek to change the reality of hatred and instill hope.’”

Image: Israeli soldiers place Israeli flags on the graves of fallen soldiers in Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem (Hadas Parush/Flash90).