The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Escaped Joe Biden

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

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

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving 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 turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

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