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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

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

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country 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 global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country'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. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, 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 conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal