How Trump Secured a Gaza Major Step Which Eluded Biden

Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza 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 Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned 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 the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

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

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped 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, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries 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 demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal