The Way Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Eluded Biden

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words 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 discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

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

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited 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 Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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