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So, what time period are we in? The White House occupant, after months of implicit backing, has ultimately stepped in to halt an military campaign from Israel that has reduced swaths of a Middle Eastern city to rubble, leaving many thousands deceased and prompting worldwide anger.

This military action has come after a series of strikes on Israel. Now, responding to pressure from the US administration, the Israel's leader, a rightwinger with a talent for populist rhetoric and a deep conviction of Zionist historical purpose, has approved a truce.

Historical Comparisons

The year is not the current year, but the early 1980s. The urban center is not the Gaza Strip, but Beirut, Lebanon. The president is Ronald Reagan, not today's leadership.

We find significant distinctions between what happened in Lebanon more than four years past and what has happened in Palestinian territories in the recent period. The Hamas raid of last year, which killed over a thousand and involved 250 seized, shows limited similarity with the relatively paltry activities of the PLO in the period preceding military entry of Lebanon.

Uncanny Similarities

Several similarities are remarkable. The US leader eventually picked up the phone the counterpart, informing him that what was happening in the capital was "a holocaust" and saying the diplomatic ties between their nations could be gravely damaged if the violence continued.

At that time, much as today, the conflict played out in real time on televisions worldwide. Numerous correspondents traveled to the capital to cover for the initial instance an Arab–Israeli war without censorship by the combatants.

Aftermath and Consequences

The events subsequent to the conversation from American leadership and the truce in Beirut is instructive. The Palestinian organization, its groups and officials were scattered across multiple countries and a various states.

The US administration then withdrew international forces – a breach of the agreement with PLO leadership. The elected leader, the country's newly elected head of state and Israeli-supported figure, was killed by Syrian security services.

Middle Eastern Changes

The same was true across the rest of the region. By the late seventies, the more secular and forward-thinking concepts that had seemed to offer the hope of a different tomorrow in the Arab and Islamic worlds years before were undermined.

The outcomes of this were quickly apparent, in short order

In various nations, the Israeli state and the America now confronted enemies who were significantly more unyielding, lethal and capable than the leftists and nationalists of the past.

International Reaction

Among Western nations, the results of this were perverse. Throughout the that decade, western analysts and officials had tried to analyze what led to violent extremism.

Then, in the early 1980s, this ended. Political leaders in the America, the Britain and additional countries were no longer interested in "fundamental sources" of conflict.

Current Similarities

Last week, reports indicate that today's officials communicated to the nation's leadership that the country could not oppose international consensus and admitted national hopes for a sovereign entity.

This too was an parallel of historical precedent. In the aftermath of the military incursion of the neighboring country, previous leadership told Israel that the power of its armed forces alone could not "bring just and lasting peace" and recognized "proper claims of the Arab residents."

Yet a internationally-backed comprehensive agreement supposed to resolve those concerns failed to progress. Abroad, political figures looked on helplessly.

Worldwide concern in the region diminished. Israel resisted any concessions. Later, there was the initial uprising, and the establishment of new resistance movements.

• The repetitions of history offer thought-provoking lessons for contemporary resolution attempts
• Enduring agreements require confronting root causes rather than short-term truces
• Area politics continue to evolve in complicated and frequently surprising ways