How Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Major Step That Eluded Biden

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"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 struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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