How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Major Step Which Eluded Joe Biden

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance 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 Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality 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 significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force 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 United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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