Veterans warn of echoes from 1982 Lebanon war as new conflict looms on Israel’s northern borders

As a terrorist attack, a harsh response and an ensuing invasion strike familiar chords, analysts look for lessons from the war of 42 years ago

It started with a terrorist attack, which triggered massive military retaliation, the siege of a city, the deaths of thousands of civilians and devastation and global outrage. If the military operation was a success in tactical terms, it led to strategic failures that scarred the nation and the region for decades to come.

Sounds familiar? Forty-two years later, as a new conflict looms on Israel's northern borders, historians, analysts and veterans of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon are looking to that now-distant war for lessons and warnings.