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

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, 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 objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller 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 the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His 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.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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