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So, which time period is this? A US president, following an extended period of quiet support, has at last become involved to end an Israeli military offensive that has reduced extensive sections of a urban center in the region to ruins, resulting in thousands killed and prompting international condemnation.

The campaign has been preceded by a sequence of strikes on the Israeli nation. Presently, responding to pressure from the White House, the Israel's leader, a right-leaning figure with an aptitude for appealing language and a strong feeling of Zionist historical purpose, has agreed to a truce.

Historical Parallels

The time period is not the current year, but the early 1980s. The location is not present-day Gaza, but Beirut. The American president is Ronald Reagan, not today's leadership.

There are many differences between the situation in the Lebanese nation over four years past and what has happened in Palestinian territories in the last 24 months. The militant assault of last year, which resulted in 1,200 and involved two hundred fifty captured, bears little comparison with the somewhat modest efforts of the Palestinian leadership in the time preceding Israel's invasion of the Lebanese nation.

Striking Parallels

Some are uncanny. The US leader eventually contacted the prime minister, telling him that what was happening in Beirut was "a disaster" and explaining the relationship between their nations could be significantly impaired if the conflict continued.

In 1982, much as today, the war developed in live on televisions worldwide. Many correspondents traveled to Beirut to document for the premier occasion an Middle Eastern conflict without censorship by any party.

Subsequent Developments

The events after the conversation from the US president and the ceasefire in Lebanon is instructive. The Palestinian organization, its divisions and leaders were spread across thousands of miles and a dozen countries.

American leadership then pulled out multinational troops – a breach of the arrangement with Arafat. Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's recently chosen leader and Israeli-supported figure, was assassinated by Damascus operatives.

Area-wide Shifts

The same was true across the wider Middle East. By the end of the 1970s, the predominantly worldly and forward-thinking concepts that had seemed to offer the hope of a changed reality in the Arab and Islamic worlds a decade or so earlier were undermined.

The outcomes of this became very clear, almost immediately

Across the region, the Israeli state and the America now confronted opponents who were much more intractable, lethal and effective than the secular movements and nationalists of earlier years.

International Reaction

In the west, the results of this were unexpected. Throughout the that decade, international experts and officials had sought to understand what caused militant radicalism.

Then, in the start of the eighties, this ended. Government officials in the America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere were lost interest in "underlying reasons" of unrest.

Modern Parallels

Last week, sources suggest that current leadership informed Israeli counterparts that the state could not confront global opinion and admitted Palestinian aspirations for a state.

This also was an echo of historical precedent. In the wake of the military incursion of Lebanon, earlier administration told the nation that the strength of its military alone could not "bring enduring settlement" and accepted "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

However a internationally-backed regional peace plan supposed to address those grievances failed to progress. Abroad, national representatives watched powerlessly.

Global attention in the region diminished. The state opposed compromises. Afterward, there was the first intifada, and the creation of additional militant groups.

• The cycles of the past present serious insights for contemporary resolution attempts
• Permanent settlements require addressing underlying issues rather than brief halts
• Local circumstances continue to evolve in multifaceted and frequently surprising ways