🔗 Share this article

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards 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 leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

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

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence 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 do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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