China has failed to take on a central role over the war between Israel and Hamas as it pursues other interests in the Middle East such as trying to secure a new military base, the former head of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency told Newsweek.
China holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council through November.
“This should have given it the opportunity to be very, very active and very prominent in the way the international community is reacting” Efraim Halevy said from Tel Aviv.
“This opportunity of using the current outburst of war in the Middle East has not seen an attempt by China to jump into the fray. Very not so,” said Halevy, who served for 40 years in the Mossad, Israel’s international intelligence agency, leading the organisation and Israel’s National Security Council from 1998-2002.
China’s comments on Gaza, where it failed to condemn the October 7 Hamas attacks at the start of the latest round of conflict, have come as a disappointment to Israel after years of apparently warming ties during which Israeli officials pushed to deepen economic, scientific and technology cooperation and to allow Chinese investment in high-tech start ups and the major port of Haifa. The closer links on technology had even alarmed Israel’s U.S. ally.
At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attacks, while more than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s subsequent military operation, according to Palestinian officials cited by the Associated Press.
China had not said anything of consequence on the horrors of the Hamas attack, Halevy said.
“Although China has full diplomatic relations with Israel, it does not express themself with in any way regret around the loss of life, but also the brutal way in which people found their lives extinguished,” Halevy said.
China’s profile has been growing in the Middle East and around the world, as it plans its global rise that aims to equal or outdo the U.S. in multiple spheres, including diplomatic and strategic, by 2049.
But China has not been hugely vocal on Gaza, although it called for a ceasefire early on and for talks on a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, with whom it traditionally had good relations for decades.
China’s response differed starkly not only from the support for Israel from its traditional U.S. ally, but also China’s Asian rival, India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “we stand in solidarity with Israel” immediately after the Hamas attacks.
Halevy also contrasted China’s response on Gaza to the more overt opposition to Israel’s position from Russia and to the strong moves by the United States in support of Israel under President Joe Biden.
“Russia certainly has placed itself at the side of Hamas in this present war. And China has, if you compare the two, I think unexpectedly maybe in a way, has not come out so very, very prominently, as Russia has, for example,” he said.
