How Trump Secured a Gaza Major Step Which Escaped Biden

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader 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 leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing 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 Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region 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 United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal