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So, what time period are we in? A US president, after months of implicit backing, has ultimately stepped in to end an offensive by Israeli forces that has transformed extensive sections of a urban center in the region to ruins, resulting in many thousands deceased and generating worldwide anger.

The campaign has come after a succession of strikes on the Israeli nation. Presently, responding to pressure from the US administration, the Israel's leader, a conservative politician with an aptitude for populist rhetoric and a deep conviction of historical Jewish national duty, has approved a ceasefire.

Historical Parallels

The year is not present day, but four decades ago. The location is not Gaza City, but the Lebanese capital. The president is President Reagan, not today's leadership.

There are many differences between the situation in Lebanon more than four years past and current circumstances in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 months. The October attack of last year, which caused over a thousand and saw 250 seized, differs significantly with the comparatively limited activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the time prior to military entry of Lebanon.

Striking Parallels

Several similarities are remarkable. The US leader eventually contacted the counterpart, stating to him that events in the capital was "a holocaust" and explaining the relationship between their countries could be significantly impaired if the fighting persisted.

During that period, similar to current times, the fighting developed in live on millions of screens. Many journalists entered Beirut to report on for the premier occasion an Middle Eastern conflict without media restrictions by the combatants.

Results and Outcomes

The events after the call from the US president and the truce in Lebanon is educational. The liberation movement, its divisions and officials were scattered across vast distances and a multiple nations.

American leadership then removed multinational troops – an infringement of the arrangement with PLO leadership. The elected leader, Lebanon's recently chosen leader and Israel's preferred proxy, was assassinated by Syrian security services.

Regional Transformation

Similar patterns emerged across the rest of the region. By the end of the 1970s, the predominantly worldly and modern approaches that had looked to deliver the hope of a changed reality in the Middle Eastern nations a decade or so earlier were weakened.

The consequences of this were quickly apparent, in short order

In various nations, Israel and the United States now faced enemies who were considerably more stubborn, dangerous and effective than the progressive groups and nationalists of the past.

Western Response

Among Western nations, the consequences of this were perverse. During the 1970s, international experts and government representatives had tried to analyze what caused armed fundamentalism.

Afterward, in the beginning of that decade, this ceased. National figures in the America, the Britain and additional countries were no longer interested in "underlying reasons" of conflict.

Current Similarities

Last week, accounts show that current leadership communicated to Israeli counterparts that Israel could not confront global opinion and acknowledged national hopes for a independent nation.

This too was an echo of that earlier period. In the wake of the Israeli invasion of that nation, earlier administration told the nation that the capability of its defense establishment alone could not "establish just and lasting peace" and accepted "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

Yet a internationally-backed comprehensive agreement meant to resolve those complaints failed to progress. Abroad, political figures looked on impotently.

Global attention in the region decreased. The state opposed compromises. Afterward, there was the major unrest, and the founding of new resistance movements.

• The patterns of the past provide thought-provoking insights for contemporary peace efforts
• Lasting solutions require dealing with root causes rather than brief halts
• Area politics continue to change in complicated and often unpredictable ways