🔗 Share this article

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, 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, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip 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 no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal