How Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Major Step That Escaped Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, 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 full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. 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 Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including 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 helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

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

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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