How Donald Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Major Step Which Eluded Biden

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "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 relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

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

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