🔗 Share this article

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

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during 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 northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal