The Way Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Escaped Biden

Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

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

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst 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 consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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