How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Escaped Biden

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy 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 against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert 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 accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing 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 president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula 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 visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal