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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence 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 American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death 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