The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough That Escaped Biden

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances 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 Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged 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 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example 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 consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

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

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal