BEIJING, July 15 -- Feuds are easy to start and hard to end. The relationship between Israel and the rest of the Arab world is a case in point.

    With Israel attacking its neighbours on two fronts, the crisis in the Middle East is out of control.

    After its military incursion in Gaza two weeks ago, Israel launched strikes in Lebanon, an action that may lead to a dangerous escalation of the conflict in the region.

    It added one more explosive element to a region that is consistent in its chaos.

    Israel's outrageous bombing of Beirut airport and the imposition of a blockade on the entire country constitute a grave crisis.

    With the scores of lives the conflicts have already taken, intensified military strikes will cost more lives. Each lost life will feed the hatred.

    Restraint may be the last thing Israel will think about, but wreaking devastation on Lebanon and Palestine is unlikely to secure Israel's goals.

    Israel's military strikes go far beyond its legitimate right to defend itself.

    Coolness is also a necessary code of conduct for the other sides in the conflicts.

    Hezbollah sparked the current conflict on Wednesday with a cross-border raid that captured two of Israel's soldiers.

    A vicious cycle of reprisal has already happened, a harbinger of a drastic turn for the worse in the region.

    Israel's offensive was among its heaviest in Lebanon since it invaded the neighbouring country and occupied its capital 24 years ago.

    Hardly surprisingly, rockets were quickly fired back from Lebanon, hitting towns and villages inside Israel, hurting civilians there.

    The world is watching the conflict with mounting fear that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control in a volatile region already torn by conflicts in Iraq and Gaza.

    The re-entry of Israeli troops into Lebanon will sabotage the peace process between Israel and the Arab world, which they agreed to work on in Madrid in 1991.

    The flare-up in violence between Israel and Lebanon has turned into an international issue. The sudden crisis has sent shockwaves around the world. Oil prices surged on Thursday to a record of over US$78 a barrel in world markets, partly agitated by the threat of supply disruptions in the Middle East and beyond.

    The international community, the big powers in particular, should respond to save the peace process from collapse.

    Looking back at how the peace process moved forward shows that the international community carries much weight in the region.

    The Madrid talks and Oslo deal were achieved in part thanks to pressure and diplomacy from big powers such as Russia, the United States and European Union.

    The involvement and mediation of these powers should be fair and impartial.

    UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a three-member team of veteran officials to the Middle East, part of the international community's mediation efforts to defuse the new crisis in the region.

    Vetoing an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the United States has been controversially standing behind Israel.

    Mediation can work only when it takes into account the demands and principles of both Israelis and Arabs.