The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Escaped Joe Biden

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal