🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

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. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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