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So, what year is this? An American leader, following an extended period of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to halt an Israeli military offensive that has reduced swaths of a urban center in the region to rubble, causing thousands killed and generating global outrage.

This military action has been preceded by a sequence of attacks on Israel. Now, responding to pressure from the US administration, the Israel's leader, a right-leaning figure with an aptitude for appealing language and an intense sense of historical Jewish national duty, has consented to a truce.

Past Echoes

The time period is not the current year, but 1982. The urban center is not present-day Gaza, but Beirut, Lebanon. The US leader is Ronald Reagan, not today's leadership.

We find many differences between the situation in the Lebanese nation over four decades ago and recent developments in Palestinian territories in the last 24 months. The Hamas raid of last year, which killed 1,200 and involved 250 captured, shows limited similarity with the relatively paltry actions of the Palestinian leadership in the period prior to military entry of the Lebanese nation.

Striking Parallels

Certain parallels are striking. The president ultimately made the call the Israeli leader, stating to him that what was happening in Beirut was "a holocaust" and explaining the relationship between their nations could be gravely damaged if the fighting persisted.

At that time, much as today, the conflict developed in immediate coverage on millions of screens. Hundreds correspondents flew into the city to cover for the initial instance an Middle Eastern conflict without censorship by either side.

Results and Outcomes

The events following the conversation from the US president and the truce in Lebanon is revealing. The Palestinian organization, its groups and leaders were dispersed across vast distances and a various states.

The US administration then withdrew international forces – an infringement of the understanding with PLO leadership. The elected leader, the country's freshly appointed president and Israel's chosen ally, was killed by Syrian security services.

Regional Transformation

Comparable developments occurred across the wider Middle East. By the late seventies, the predominantly worldly and modern approaches that had appeared to provide the hope of a changed reality in the Middle Eastern nations previously were undermined.

The results of this became very clear, in short order

Throughout the area, Israel and the US now confronted opponents who were considerably more intractable, deadly and effective than the leftists and independence advocates of previous times.

Western Response

Among Western nations, the outcomes of this were unexpected. During the seventies, global observers and government representatives had tried to analyze what caused armed fundamentalism.

Then, in the start of the eighties, this ended. Government officials in the United States, the Britain and elsewhere were no longer interested in "root causes" of conflict.

Contemporary Echoes

Recently, reports indicate that present administration informed government representatives that Israel could not oppose international consensus and recognized territorial ambitions for a sovereign entity.

This too was an repetition of historical precedent. In the aftermath of the military incursion of Lebanon, previous leadership told Israel that the strength of its military alone could not "establish permanent resolution" and accepted "legitimate rights of the Palestinian population."

Yet a US-led regional peace plan supposed to resolve those complaints failed to progress. From exile, political figures watched powerlessly.

International interest in the Middle East waned. Israel rejected accommodations. Later, there was the first intifada, and the founding of new resistance movements.

• The repetitions of previous events provide thought-provoking lessons for contemporary diplomatic initiatives
• Enduring agreements require addressing fundamental problems rather than brief halts
• Area politics continue to evolve in complex and sometimes unexpected ways