The Way Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Breakthrough That Eluded Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

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

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight 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 key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held 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 caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal