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So, what year is this? A US president, after months of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to stop an military campaign from Israel that has turned large areas of a city in the Middle East to rubble, causing numerous individuals killed and sparking worldwide anger.

The campaign has been preceded by a sequence of attacks on the Israeli nation. Now, under pressure from the US administration, the prime minister of Israel, a rightwinger with a talent for populist rhetoric and a strong feeling of historical Jewish national duty, has consented to a truce.

Past Echoes

The time period is not present day, but four decades ago. The urban center is not the Gaza Strip, but the Lebanese capital. The American president is President Reagan, not Donald Trump.

We find numerous variations between the events in Lebanon over four in the past and what has happened in Palestinian territories in the recent period. The October attack of last year, which resulted in twelve hundred and saw two hundred fifty taken hostage, bears little comparison with the somewhat modest activities of the Palestinian leadership in the period preceding the Israeli incursion of Lebanon.

Uncanny Similarities

Several similarities are remarkable. Reagan finally made the call the counterpart, telling him that the situation in Beirut was "a catastrophe" and indicating the relationship between their nations could be significantly impaired if the conflict carried on.

During that period, much as today, the war played out in real time on millions of screens. Hundreds reporters traveled to the city to report on for the first time an Arab–Israeli war without media restrictions by any party.

Aftermath and Consequences

The situation after the conversation from the US president and the halt in fighting in Lebanon is instructive. The Palestinian organization, its divisions and officials were spread across vast distances and a dozen countries.

Washington then removed US-led peacekeepers – a breach of the understanding with PLO leadership. The elected leader, the nation's recently chosen leader and Israel's chosen ally, was killed by Damascus operatives.

Area-wide Shifts

Similar patterns emerged across the rest of the region. By the conclusion of that decade, the predominantly worldly and progressive ideas that had appeared to provide the potential of a different tomorrow in the Arab and Islamic worlds a decade or so earlier were discredited.

The results of this emerged rapidly, almost immediately

In various nations, Israel and the US now encountered opponents who were much more stubborn, lethal and capable than the leftists and patriotic organizations of previous times.

Global Approach

Internationally, the results of this were counterintuitive. Throughout the that decade, global observers and government representatives had sought to understand what generated armed fundamentalism.

Then, in the early 1980s, this ended. Government officials in the America, the Britain and additional countries were lost interest in "underlying reasons" of unrest.

Modern Parallels

In recent days, sources suggest that present administration told government representatives that the country could not confront global opinion and recognized Palestinian aspirations for a independent nation.

Similarly was an repetition of historical precedent. In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of the neighboring country, earlier administration told Israel that the power of its defense establishment alone could not "establish just and lasting peace" and recognized "justified demands of the Palestinian population."

However a American-sponsored diplomatic initiative supposed to resolve those grievances went nowhere. Abroad, Palestinian leadership looked on powerlessly.

International interest in the region waned. The state resisted any concessions. Later, there was the major unrest, and the creation of further armed organizations.

• The repetitions of the past present serious lessons for current peace efforts
• Enduring agreements require addressing fundamental problems rather than short-term truces
• Area politics continue to develop in multifaceted and frequently surprising ways