How Donald Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Escaped Biden

Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step 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 eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

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

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing 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 in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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