Police estimated between 15-30,000 people participated in the LGBT Pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon, with a few hundred attending counter-demonstrations, all of which was watched over by several thousand security personnel. The march occurred just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of Amir Ohana to be Justice Minister, making a point of mentioning that he would be the first openly homosexual senior cabinet member in Israeli history.

Firefighters were battling multiple blazes in the hills around Jerusalem on Thursday, with arson being suspected by many local residents and insurers estimating that nearly NIS 700,000 in damage has already occurred. Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, told Hadashot, “My heart breaks to see thousands of dunams of farmland and pastures being burned.”

Israeli Diplomat Anat Fisher Tsin was elected to the post of Deputy Chairman of the UN’s Economic and Financial Committee this week, breaking a long-standing drought in Israelis elected to positions on UN Committees. “The election of Anat adds to the many victories we have reached in recent years that promote the status of the State of Israel in the international community,” declared Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit dealt a legal setback to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday by rejecting his request for a second delay to his pre-indictment hearing beyond October 2-3, despite Netanyahu’s plea that the re-run elections made such a delay necessary.

Archeological excavations in the ancient city of Bethsaida in the Golan Heights’ Jordan Park uncovered a city gate from the time of King David (around the 10th to 11th century BC) this week. Professor Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska, chief archaeologist overseeing the excavations, told the Jerusalem Post that “there are not many gates from capital cities in this country from this period. Bethsaida was the name of the city during the Second Temple period, but during the First Temple period it was the city of Zer” before adding that a city by that name is mentioned in Joshua 19:35.

The younger generation of adult Palestinians is in many ways radically different from Palestinian youth of the past. This “post-Oslo” generation, born since the 1990s, lives under a combination of Palestinian self-governance and the continuation of Israeli control. The Arab Spring has also affected this generation as it encouraged defiance against authority figures.  Simultaneously, the digital realm provides instant gratification through the charms of Western consumer culture, as well as easily accessible exposure to extremist ideology, such as that of the Islamic State.

The Israeli Palestinian conflict has never been a bilateral affair, with external forces – both regional and global – having their own designs and interests, at times contradictory to the parties themselves. With the U.S. initiative promised to be unveiled soon, the status of global involvement may turn-out to be more crucial than-ever – for the viability of any solution offered.

Dr. Bühler is an ordained minister and trained physicist who serves as President of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. After graduating from Ulm University with a degree in physics, Jürgen moved to Israel in 1994 and joined the staff of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in 1999 and served from 2001 to 2011 as National Director for ICEJ-Germany.