Those seeking peace need something solid

Our arrival off the plane from Dubai was an interesting moment as the people heading for the special registration desk for the World Economic Forum got mixed up with a large group of Christian pilgrims from south India who were on their way to visit the holy sites in Palestine and Israel.

Both the Forum delegates and the pilgrims are searching for the truth, but at that precise moment both needed to get their immigrations stamps in their passports so that the search might continue.

After initial confusion all went well, and I was reminded of the extraordinary ability of Davos in pulling people together.

Travelling down to the Dead Sea we passed through the wide rolling hills of Jordan, with the grass getting brown now that the summer is beginning. But large herds of sheep were out grazing, and the fields were being ploughed.

Passing large groves of planted olive trees, with their distinctive light green leaves shimmering in the sun, was the moment that I realized we had left the Gulf and were in the Mediterranean.

Under King Abdullah, Jordan is playing the same role that it did for decades under his father, King Hussain, as it bridges the many different threads in the Arab world, and acts as a unifying force.

It is noticeable how different Arab leaders at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea have emphasised the same thing: that any peace talks with Israel cannot be allowed to run on without serious and measurable commitments from Israel.

King Abdullah of Jordan; Amr Mousa, Secretary General of the Arab League; and the two Foreign Ministers of Bahrain and Qatar have all been quite explicit that the Arab Peace Initiative needs a time limit after which it will be withdrawn.

This united toughening of the Arab position has been reinforced by a combination of events.

First, there is an obvious need for those who are seeking peace to achieve something solid.

They cannot continue to talk of peace for years, and fail to bring it about, since that only strengthens the position of those who reject the peace process.

Second, the new Israeli government of Benyamin Netanyahu is the most-anti Palestinian for many years, and this requires the Arabs to take a much more definite line so as to avoid getting out manuoevered by the Israelis.

Third, the new Obama administration has yet to announce its ideas on the Palestine-Israel dispute, so there is a continuing window for the Arab side to be very clear about where it has to go, so that this can be part of Obama's planning.