🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

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

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing 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 initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal