An Enduring Truce Between Israel and Palestine? We have Witnessed Similar Promises – The Result Was Further Violence

So, what year do we find ourselves? A US president, after months of tacit encouragement, has at last become involved to end an offensive by Israeli forces that has reduced swaths of a Middle Eastern city to ruins, leaving many thousands deceased and sparking worldwide anger.

The campaign has followed a series of assaults on the Israeli nation. Currently, responding to pressure from the US administration, the Israeli prime minister, a rightwinger with a talent for popular speech and a deep conviction of historic Zionist mission, has consented to a ceasefire.

Historical Parallels

The time period is not present day, but 1982. The city is not present-day Gaza, but the Lebanese capital. The US leader is the Reagan administration, not Donald Trump.

We find significant distinctions between the situation in the Lebanese nation more than four decades ago and current circumstances in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 months. The Hamas raid of recent times, which caused over a thousand and involved 250 seized, shows limited similarity with the comparatively limited efforts of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the time before the Israeli incursion of the Lebanese nation.

Striking Parallels

Certain parallels are striking. Reagan finally picked up the phone the prime minister, stating to him that the situation in Beirut was "a disaster" and saying the diplomatic ties between their states could be significantly impaired if the fighting continued.

At that time, similar to current times, the conflict played out in immediate coverage on millions of screens. Hundreds journalists flew into the city to report on for the first time an Middle Eastern conflict without censorship by any party.

Results and Outcomes

The events after the conversation from the US president and the truce in the city is revealing. The liberation movement, its factions and representatives were spread across thousands of miles and a dozen countries.

Washington then withdrew international forces – a breach of the agreement with PLO leadership. The Lebanese president, the country's recently chosen president and Israel's chosen ally, was murdered by Syrian intelligence.

Area-wide Shifts

Comparable developments occurred across the rest of the region. By the late seventies, the more secular and forward-thinking concepts that had seemed to offer the promise of a changed reality in the Middle Eastern nations previously were discredited.

The results of this were quickly apparent, in short order

In various nations, Israel and the America now faced enemies who were much more unyielding, dangerous and efficient than the leftists and patriotic organizations of previous times.

Global Approach

Among Western nations, the outcomes of this were perverse. Throughout the seventies, global observers and officials had sought to understand what led to violent extremism.

Afterward, in the start of the eighties, this stopped. Government officials in the America, the UK and elsewhere were lost interest in "underlying reasons" of unrest.

Current Similarities

Last week, accounts show that present administration told government representatives that Israel could not oppose international consensus and admitted national hopes for a independent nation.

This also was an repetition of historical precedent. In the aftermath of the armed entry of Lebanon, previous leadership told the Israeli government that the power of its armed forces alone could not "establish enduring settlement" and acknowledged "justified demands of the Arab residents."

However a American-sponsored diplomatic initiative meant to answer those grievances failed to progress. Overseas, political figures looked on powerlessly.

Global attention in the region waned. Israel opposed compromises. Afterward, there was the first intifada, and the founding of further armed organizations.

• The patterns of the past offer serious insights for contemporary resolution attempts
• Enduring agreements require confronting fundamental problems rather than brief halts
• Local circumstances continue to change in multifaceted and often unpredictable ways