The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Breakthrough Which Escaped Biden

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says 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 you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's 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 he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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