The Way Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Escaped Joe Biden

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal