🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country 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 global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu 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 launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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 country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal