Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza – one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.
If Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.
“One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas,” says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully.”
The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.
Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.
An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 Palestinians is now imaginable.
