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So, which year are we in? A US president, following an extended period of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to halt an offensive by Israeli forces that has transformed large areas of a Middle Eastern city to debris, leaving thousands deceased and sparking worldwide anger.

This military action has followed a series of strikes on Israel. Presently, responding to pressure from American leadership, the Israeli prime minister, a conservative politician with a gift for popular speech and a strong feeling of historic Zionist mission, has agreed to a truce.

Historical Parallels

The era is not the current year, but four decades ago. The city is not present-day Gaza, but Beirut, Lebanon. The American president is Ronald Reagan, not today's leadership.

There are significant distinctions between the situation in Lebanon over four in the past and recent developments in Gaza in the recent period. The October attack of last year, which resulted in 1,200 and involved two hundred fifty captured, differs significantly with the somewhat modest actions of the PLO in the year or so prior to the Israeli incursion of Lebanon.

Uncanny Similarities

Certain parallels are striking. The US leader eventually made the call the prime minister, stating to him that events in Beirut was "a catastrophe" and indicating the diplomatic ties between their nations could be seriously harmed if the conflict persisted.

At that time, much as today, the fighting developed in immediate coverage on global media. Hundreds reporters flew into Beirut to report on for the initial instance an Middle Eastern conflict without information control by the combatants.

Aftermath and Consequences

What happened subsequent to the communication from the US president and the halt in fighting in the city is instructive. The PLO, its groups and leaders were spread across thousands of miles and a dozen countries.

American leadership then withdrew US-led peacekeepers – a breach of the arrangement with PLO leadership. The Lebanese president, the nation's newly elected head of state and Israel's preferred proxy, was murdered by Damascus operatives.

Middle Eastern Changes

Similar patterns emerged across the rest of the region. By the late seventies, the increasingly non-religious and forward-thinking concepts that had appeared to provide the hope of a new future in the regional countries a decade or so earlier were undermined.

The consequences of this emerged rapidly, very quickly

Throughout the area, the Israeli state and the United States now encountered adversaries who were much more unyielding, deadly and effective than the leftists and patriotic organizations of earlier years.

International Reaction

Internationally, the results of this were perverse. During the seventies, international experts and government representatives had attempted to comprehend what generated militant radicalism.

Afterward, in the beginning of that decade, this ended. National figures in the America, the UK and additional countries were no longer interested in "fundamental sources" of unrest.

Contemporary Echoes

Last week, reports indicate that present administration communicated to the nation's leadership that Israel could not fight all the world and admitted Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign entity.

Similarly was an parallel of that earlier period. In the wake of the Israeli invasion of that nation, past government told the nation that the power of its defense establishment alone could not "achieve permanent resolution" and acknowledged "proper claims of the Palestinian people."

Yet a US-led comprehensive agreement intended to address those concerns failed to progress. Overseas, political figures observed impotently.

Global attention in the Middle East diminished. The nation opposed compromises. Later, there was the first intifada, and the founding of additional militant groups.

• The cycles of history present serious insights for current resolution attempts
• Enduring agreements require addressing root causes rather than temporary ceasefires
• Area politics continue to evolve in complicated and often unpredictable ways