🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

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 American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

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

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal