Let's see the original NYT piece - that blockquote from Al Jazeera blogs seems to be a verbatim quote from the NYT. Here's more:

Ties between Israel and China are collegial but Israeli officials have been working hard to regain Beijing's favor since a bungled arms deal in 2000 infuriated Chinese leaders. More recently, they have also had to compete against China's growing thirst for Middle East oil, which makes up half the country's petroleum imports. With its single-minded focus on securing the energy required for continued economic growth, Beijing has shifted some of its diplomatic ardor to the countries of the Middle East, some of which are Israel's sworn enemies.

Alarmed by the shift, Israel has stepped up its soft-power diplomacy through academic, cultural and medical exchanges. "Israel is not a great supplier of the kinds of natural resources that China can find among some of our neighbors but we do have a lot to offer them, and there is a strong sense of mutual respect," said Amos Nadai, the Israeli ambassador to Beijing.

Israeli officials cite some commonalities: their histories as ancient civilizations and the transformative economic growth that has defied conventional wisdom and a yearning for regional stability. Although as vividly demonstrated in the crisis over last week's deadly commando raid on a flotilla of activists -- not to speak of Iran's nuclear program -- Israel is not afraid to threaten that stability in the face of an existential threat.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan