The Way Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Major Step Which Eluded Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

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

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

"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 challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal