🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step 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 Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, 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 simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He 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.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

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

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal