🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

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

The leader 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. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal