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

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader 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.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, 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 do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal