How Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough That Escaped Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved 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 international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing 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 US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure 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, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump 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 Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal