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So, what year do we find ourselves? An American leader, following an extended period of quiet support, has at last become involved to stop an military campaign from Israel that has turned extensive sections of a city in the Middle East to debris, leaving many thousands deceased and prompting international condemnation.

The offensive has been preceded by a series of attacks on Israel. Presently, under pressure from the US administration, the Israel's leader, a right-leaning figure with a gift for populist rhetoric and an intense sense of historic Zionist mission, has approved a ceasefire.

Historical Parallels

The time period is not the current year, but the early 1980s. The urban center is not Gaza City, but Beirut. The president is the Reagan administration, not today's leadership.

We find many differences between the events in Lebanon over four decades ago and what has happened in the Gaza Strip in the recent period. The October attack of recent times, which caused twelve hundred and included numerous captured, bears little comparison with the comparatively limited activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the period preceding Israel's invasion of the Lebanese nation.

Remarkable Resemblances

Certain parallels are striking. The president ultimately made the call the Israeli leader, telling him that what was happening in the capital was "a disaster" and indicating the diplomatic ties between their countries could be gravely damaged if the conflict carried on.

At that time, much as today, the war played out in live on millions of screens. Hundreds journalists flew into the capital to cover for the initial instance an regional battle without censorship by the combatants.

Subsequent Developments

What happened subsequent to the conversation from the US president and the halt in fighting in Beirut is educational. The liberation movement, its divisions and officials were scattered across vast distances and a various states.

Washington then removed multinational troops – a violation of the understanding with the Palestinian leader. The Lebanese president, the country's freshly appointed president and Israel's preferred proxy, was killed by Damascus operatives.

Middle Eastern Changes

Comparable developments occurred across the rest of the region. By the conclusion of that decade, the predominantly worldly and modern approaches that had appeared to provide the potential of a new future in the Arab and Islamic worlds previously were discredited.

The results of this were quickly apparent, very quickly

Throughout the area, the Israeli state and the United States now confronted opponents who were significantly more unyielding, dangerous and efficient than the secular movements and patriotic organizations of earlier years.

Western Response

Internationally, the results of this were unexpected. Throughout the that decade, international experts and officials had sought to understand what led to violent extremism.

Then, in the beginning of that decade, this stopped. Government officials in the America, the UK and other nations were ceased being concerned in "root causes" of conflict.

Modern Parallels

In recent days, accounts show that current leadership told the nation's leadership that Israel could not fight all the world and acknowledged territorial ambitions for a independent nation.

This too was an repetition of 1982. In the consequence of the armed entry of the neighboring country, previous leadership told the Israeli government that the strength of its military alone could not "establish permanent resolution" and recognized "proper claims of the Palestinian people."

Yet a US-led comprehensive agreement supposed to resolve those concerns stalled completely. Abroad, political figures looked on impotently.

Worldwide concern in the area waned. The state rejected accommodations. Subsequently, there was the major unrest, and the founding of additional militant groups.

• The repetitions of the past offer serious perspectives for contemporary peace efforts
• Lasting solutions require confronting root causes rather than temporary ceasefires
• Local circumstances continue to evolve in complex and often unpredictable ways