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

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel 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 cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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