How Trump Secured a Gaza Major Step Which Eluded Joe Biden

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However 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.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president'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, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal