🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence 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 you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

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

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal