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

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations 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 conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited 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 diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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