How Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Eluded Joe Biden

Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time 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 the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal