🔗 Share this article

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

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, 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 Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister 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 leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal