Israelis flocked to the streets, parks, malls and nature reserves on Wednesday to celebrate the 50th anniversary (according to the Hebrew Calendar) of the liberation and re-unification of their capital city during the 1967 Middle East War (Six Day War) which also saw Israel recover the West Bank, which had previously been under Jordanian occupation. In addition to festivities, the day held plenty of political drama, and political leaders on the Left proclaimed their desire to see Jerusalem divided once again, earning a strong rebuke from leaders on the Right.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman gave an interview with Army Radio Wednesday morning in which he expressed his alarm at the escalating pace and size of purchases of military equipment and weapons by Israel’s neighbors in the region.  “I’m not at peace with the arms race in the Middle East,” he said. “The arms sales in the region have reached $215 billion and this is no small sum.”

Mokhtar Gomaa, Egypt’s Minister of Religious Endowments, has made a series of decisions in recent days including ordering muezzin’s to turn down the volume in calls to prayer during the late evening hours, admitting a Christian student to the dentistry program at Cairo’s Islamic center of learning, Al-Azhar University and allowing Coptic Christian journalist to renovate a mosque. Analysts have warned of the potential for violence.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev revealed this week that they have developed an experimental treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The disease has long been incurable, but the BGU team said they have made a “breakthrough” which can massively improve the lives of those suffering from the disease and possible also address issues related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The Histadrut, Israel’s largest and oldest labor federation, held a vote for its leadership Wednesday under a cloud of suspicion amidst allegations that different factions had engaged in election fraud. Nonetheless, when a judge ordered the counting of ballots stopped late Wednesday evening, incumbent chairman Avi Nissenkorn claimed victory over his main rival, Zionist Union MK Shelly Yacimovich. However, Yacimovich wasn’t giving up Thursday morning, declaring that she believed the election had been stolen and claiming she had plenty of evidence to back up her assertion.

President Trump’s efforts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table are taking place against the background of a broader effort to recast US policy in the region. Facing the Iranian revolutionary regime and its proxies on the one hand and radical Sunni versions of Islamist totalitarianism on the other, key regional players are now more open than ever to an informal US-led alliance against their common enemies.