How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Major Step Which Escaped Biden

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is 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 disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

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

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force 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. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly 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 desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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