The Way Donald Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Escaped Biden

Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal