🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance 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 the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections 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 Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal