🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, 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 deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

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

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal