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So, which time period do we find ourselves? The White House occupant, after months of implicit backing, has ultimately stepped in to halt an offensive by Israeli forces that has transformed large areas of a city in the Middle East to debris, leaving thousands deceased and generating worldwide anger.

This military action has followed a sequence of assaults on the Israeli nation. Now, facing demands from the US administration, the Israel's leader, a conservative politician with an aptitude for appealing language and a deep conviction of historic Zionist mission, has agreed to a halt in hostilities.

Past Echoes

The year is not present day, but four decades ago. The urban center is not Gaza City, but Beirut. The president is the Reagan administration, not today's leadership.

We find many differences between what happened in the Lebanese nation more than four years past and recent developments in Palestinian territories in the recent period. The Hamas raid of recent times, which resulted in 1,200 and involved numerous captured, bears little comparison with the relatively paltry actions of the Palestinian leadership in the period preceding military entry of Lebanon.

Remarkable Resemblances

Several similarities are remarkable. Reagan finally picked up the phone the prime minister, stating to him that events in Beirut was "a catastrophe" and saying the relations between their states could be seriously harmed if the fighting carried on.

In 1982, similar to current times, the fighting unfolded in real time on global media. Many reporters flew into the capital to cover for the first time an Middle Eastern conflict without media restrictions by the combatants.

Aftermath and Consequences

The situation subsequent to the conversation from Reagan and the halt in fighting in Lebanon is educational. The liberation movement, its factions and representatives were dispersed across vast distances and a multiple nations.

Washington then pulled out multinational troops – an infringement of the agreement with Arafat. The Lebanese president, Lebanon's recently chosen head of state and Israeli-supported figure, was assassinated by Damascus operatives.

Middle Eastern Changes

Comparable developments occurred across the wider Middle East. By the late seventies, the more secular and modern approaches that had appeared to provide the potential of a different tomorrow in the Arab and Islamic worlds previously were weakened.

The consequences of this became very clear, very quickly

Across the region, Israel and the United States now faced adversaries who were much more intractable, lethal and capable than the secular movements and patriotic organizations of previous times.

International Reaction

In the west, the outcomes of this were perverse. Throughout the 1970s, global observers and officials had attempted to comprehend what led to violent extremism.

Afterward, in the start of the eighties, this stopped. National figures in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere were no longer interested in "fundamental sources" of unrest.

Modern Parallels

In recent days, reports indicate that present administration told Israeli counterparts that the country could not fight all the world and acknowledged territorial ambitions for a sovereign entity.

This too was an parallel of historical precedent. In the wake of the Israeli invasion of the neighboring country, earlier administration told the Israeli government that the power of its defense establishment alone could not "achieve permanent resolution" and acknowledged "proper claims of the Arab residents."

Yet a US-led diplomatic initiative intended to answer those complaints stalled completely. Abroad, political figures observed impotently.

International interest in the region diminished. The nation resisted any concessions. Subsequently, there was the first intifada, and the founding of further armed organizations.

• The repetitions of the past provide thought-provoking perspectives for present-day diplomatic initiatives
• Lasting solutions require addressing root causes rather than brief halts
• Regional dynamics continue to change in multifaceted and often unpredictable ways