The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Eluded Joe Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader 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 literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

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

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal