The Way Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Major Step That Eluded Joe Biden

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military 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 allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller 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 always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

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

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal