How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough That Eluded Joe Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel'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 Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain 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 issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised 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. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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