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…