How Donald Trump Achieved a Gaza Strip Major Step That Escaped Biden

At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

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

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

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

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain 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, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst 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 desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

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

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal