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So, which time period are we in? A US president, following an extended period of quiet support, has at last become involved to end an offensive by Israeli forces that has transformed extensive sections of a Middle Eastern city to debris, causing many thousands dead and generating international condemnation.

The offensive has followed a series of assaults on the Israeli nation. Currently, responding to pressure from American leadership, the prime minister of Israel, a right-leaning figure with an aptitude for populist rhetoric and an intense sense of historic Zionist mission, has approved a halt in hostilities.

Historical Comparisons

The year is not the current year, but 1982. The urban center is not Gaza City, but the Lebanese capital. The American president is the Reagan administration, not today's leadership.

Exist numerous variations between what happened in the Lebanese nation over four decades ago and what has happened in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 months. The militant assault of recent times, which resulted in over a thousand and involved numerous taken hostage, bears little comparison with the somewhat modest actions of the Palestinian leadership in the year or so preceding Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

Uncanny Similarities

Some are uncanny. The US leader eventually contacted the counterpart, stating to him that events in the capital was "a holocaust" and explaining the relationship between their states could be gravely damaged if the conflict persisted.

At that time, similar to current times, the fighting developed in immediate coverage on televisions worldwide. Numerous correspondents entered the capital to report on for the initial instance an Arab–Israeli war without media restrictions by the combatants.

Results and Outcomes

The events subsequent to the call from American leadership and the halt in fighting in Beirut is revealing. The PLO, its factions and leaders were scattered across thousands of miles and a various states.

The US administration then removed international forces – an infringement of the understanding with Arafat. The Lebanese president, Lebanon's recently chosen president and Israel's chosen ally, was murdered by Syrian security services.

Regional Transformation

Similar patterns emerged across the wider Middle East. By the late seventies, the more secular and modern approaches that had looked to deliver the hope of a different tomorrow in the Middle Eastern nations a decade or so earlier were weakened.

The results of this emerged rapidly, in short order

Throughout the area, Israel and the US now encountered adversaries who were considerably more unyielding, deadly and effective than the leftists and independence advocates of previous times.

International Reaction

Internationally, the results of this were perverse. During the 1970s, international experts and government representatives had attempted to comprehend what caused militant radicalism.

Subsequently, in the start of the eighties, this ceased. National figures in the US, the United Kingdom and other nations were no longer interested in "root causes" of conflict.

Current Similarities

Last week, reports indicate that current leadership communicated to Israeli counterparts that Israel could not oppose international consensus and recognized national hopes for a sovereign entity.

Similarly was an repetition of that earlier period. In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of that nation, past government told the Israeli government that the power of its defense establishment alone could not "bring just and lasting peace" and accepted "proper claims of the Arab residents."

Yet a American-sponsored diplomatic initiative supposed to answer those complaints failed to progress. Overseas, political figures watched impotently.

Worldwide concern in the region waned. Israel opposed compromises. Afterward, there was the major unrest, and the founding of further armed organizations.

• The repetitions of previous events offer sobering insights for present-day resolution attempts
• Lasting solutions require addressing fundamental problems rather than brief halts
• Area politics continue to change in complicated and often unpredictable ways