🔗 Share this article

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement 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 Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president 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 Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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