The Way Donald Trump Achieved a Gaza Breakthrough Which Eluded Joe Biden

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is 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 negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in 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 the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal