🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence 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 US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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