🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred 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. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal