The Way Trump Achieved a Gaza Major Step That Escaped Joe Biden

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel 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 in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal