Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal was absolutely right when he rejected US calls on his country and other like-minded Arab states to improve relations with Israel as a way to help restart Middle East peace talks.

“The question is not what the Arab world will offer… The question really is: What will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer?” Prince Saud said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after talks in Washington on Friday.

Needless to say, the stance of Riyadh is a faithful reflection of the overwhelming Arab view that taking additional confidence-building measures towards Israel before it accepts reaching a peace agreement on all outstanding issues that divide it from the rest of the Arab world, including of course the Palestinians, is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse.

As Israel is the aggressor and the occupier of Arab territories, it is the one that should take confidence-building measures towards the Arab side by accepting to engage in a comprehensive approach to achieve a durable and just peace.

As the Saudi foreign minister pointed out, the proposed “incremental and step-by-step approach for peace” is no longer tenable. The Palestinian conflict had been in the making for well over 60 years and to now propose a step-by-step approach for its resolution is simply unacceptable.

US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton, together with the US Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, have been pushing the Arab side to engage in trade and academic exchanges with Israel, and even allow Israeli civilian airlines to overfly Arab territories to demonstrate the Arab desire for peace.

This posturing is simply unrealistic given the deep division between the two sides, especially over the Israeli refusal to commit itself to a full withdrawal from Arab lands it occupied in 1967.

There is but one way left to move the peace process forward and it lies in endorsing the Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for the recognition ofIsrael by the Arab and Muslim worlds in return for the complete liberation of every occupied area and the creation of an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian soil.

Anything short of that is simply wasting precious time.