• We think Syria has accepted a plan whereby it will withdraw its tanks in a weed. Because asking it to do so now would be too much of an imposition. [LAT]
• In advance of a letter President Abbas has pledged to send Prime Minister Netanyahu, top negotiators from both sides have met secretly over the past couple weeks. [Haaretz Diplomania]
• Some IDF officials estimated that casualties following Iran’s and Hezbollah’s retaliation for a potential Israeli strike would number fewer than 300—a sharply lower estimate than has been proffered in the past. [Haaretz]
• Egypt’s Coptic Christians backed out of the panel drafting the new constitution, accusing it of being too Islamist-dominated. [WP]
• How Boro Park transforms in the days leading up to Pesach. [NYT]
• The Israeli soccer league champion is a decade-old team created to inspire a northern town in the wake of Hezbollah bombardment from Lebanon. [NYT]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.