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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification 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 hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission 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.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller 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 relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence 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 sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal