The Way Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Eluded Joe Biden

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal