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So, what year are we in? The White House occupant, after months of quiet support, has ultimately stepped in to stop an Israeli military offensive that has reduced swaths of a city in the Middle East to ruins, resulting in numerous individuals killed and generating international condemnation.

The campaign has been preceded by a series of assaults on the Israeli nation. Currently, facing demands from American leadership, the Israel's leader, a right-leaning figure with a talent for populist rhetoric and a deep conviction of historic Zionist mission, has consented to a truce.

Historical Parallels

The era is not present day, but four decades ago. The location is not present-day Gaza, but Beirut. The US leader is President Reagan, not the current administration.

We find many differences between the events in the Lebanese nation more than four decades ago and current circumstances in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 months. The militant assault of recent times, which killed over a thousand and included numerous captured, bears little comparison with the comparatively limited efforts of the Palestinian leadership in the time prior to Israel's invasion of the Lebanese nation.

Remarkable Resemblances

Certain parallels are striking. The US leader eventually picked up the phone the prime minister, telling him that what was happening in the capital was "a catastrophe" and saying the relations between their nations could be seriously harmed if the fighting carried on.

In 1982, comparable to present circumstances, the conflict played out in immediate coverage on global media. Numerous correspondents flew into Beirut to report on for the first time an Arab–Israeli war without censorship by the combatants.

Aftermath and Consequences

The situation after the call from the US president and the truce in Beirut is educational. The liberation movement, its factions and representatives were scattered across thousands of miles and a dozen countries.

American leadership then withdrew international forces – an infringement of the agreement with PLO leadership. The Lebanese president, Lebanon's freshly appointed president and Israel's chosen ally, was assassinated by Damascus operatives.

Area-wide Shifts

Similar patterns emerged across the rest of the region. By the end of the 1970s, the more secular and modern approaches that had appeared to provide the promise of a changed reality in the Middle Eastern nations a decade or so earlier were weakened.

The results of this were quickly apparent, very quickly

In various nations, Israel and the United States now faced opponents who were much more unyielding, dangerous and capable than the secular movements and patriotic organizations of earlier years.

Western Response

In the west, the outcomes of this were unexpected. During the 1970s, global observers and government representatives had sought to understand what led to armed fundamentalism.

Then, in the start of the eighties, this ceased. Political leaders in the US, the United Kingdom and other nations were no longer interested in "fundamental sources" of violence.

Current Similarities

Recently, accounts show that current leadership informed Israeli counterparts that the country could not fight all the world and recognized territorial ambitions for a independent nation.

This too was an parallel of historical precedent. In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, previous leadership told the Israeli government that the power of its armed forces alone could not "achieve enduring settlement" and acknowledged "legitimate rights of the Arab residents."

But a US-led comprehensive agreement intended to resolve those concerns went nowhere. Abroad, Palestinian leadership observed impotently.

International interest in the region decreased. Israel resisted any concessions. Afterward, there was the first intifada, and the founding of new resistance movements.

• The patterns of history present serious insights for current resolution attempts
• Lasting solutions require confronting fundamental problems rather than brief halts
• Area politics continue to develop in complicated and sometimes unexpected ways