🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

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

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president 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 occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing 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 make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president 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 Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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