How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough Which Eluded Biden

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

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

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

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

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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