The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough Which Escaped Biden

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal