From Beirut to Gaza City

Urban warfare, an appalling civilian death toll, and international outcry: Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza shares parallels with its failed invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was also meant to destroy a terrorist enemy (guerrilla units of the PLO) on the other side of the border. Whatever similarities and differences that exist between the two wars separated by 41 years, Middle East experts contend that both wars prove that there is no military solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. On the contrary, today's war is likely to end in disaster for all involved, just as the 1982 invasion did. In this episode, Middle East Institute president Paul Salem, who was in Lebanon in 1982, discusses the unsettling parallels.