Witkoff Revisited

Last Wednesday, I published Praying for Witkoff on Ukraine, Gaza and Iran. Today I must acknowledge that Trump 2.0 diplomacy appears to be failing on all three fronts, and things don't look particularly great on the China front, either. As this Monday 5 May 2025 Jerusalem Press Club briefing with Amir Avivi indicates, Israel has begun a massive mobilization to fully occupy Gaza, and Israel still has its sights firmly set on a military strike against Iran's threshold nuclear weapons program. Scheduled talks between Iran and the US have been postponed. Russia and Ukraine are no closer to a 30-day ceasefire, let alone a long-term peace agreement. In what could be seen as a stinging rebuke of NATO, President Xi Jinping will demonstrate China's solidarity with Russia by attending the Victory Day commemoration in Moscow. How far is Xi from a blockade of Taiwan?