🔗 Share this article

Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured 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, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

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

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman 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 demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal