Lebanon and Israel, 1982

Posted January 12, 2009

Israel, fed up with attacks on its border cities, accuses a Palestinian militant group using a neighboring country to launch its assaults of violating a fragile cease-fire. After months of cross-border tits-for-tats, Israel launches a full-scale attack in hopes of destroying its enemy's war-making abilities and pushing the militants farther away from its border.

Indeed, in several ways the events and context that resulted in Israel's current military action in the Gaza Strip sound eerily familiar to the invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982. In the latter conflict, the primary cross-border belligerent was the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Below are three editorials that The Times published in the days immediately following the June 6, 1982 invasion. The first was published on June 9, 1982; the second on June 10, 1982; and the third on June 11, 1982.