🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade 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 the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal