🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst 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 the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

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

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

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

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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