Make no mistake; such talks will be an exercise in futility. It is quite obvious that the core demands of the Palestinian side will prevent any real possibility of progress.

Nevertheless, Israel's very agreement to return to the negotiating table with the PA signifies the government's acceptance of an absurd situation in which the PA simultaneously conducts a policy of war against Israel while proclaiming to the world its desire for peace.

LAST MONTH, Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai from Shavei Shomron was murdered in a drive-by shooting, leaving behind a wife and seven children. The terrorists who killed him were veteran members of Abbas's Fatah movement and senior fighters in its "military wing" - the Aksa Martyrs Brigades. Following this murder, security forces tracked down and killed the terrorists while attempting to arrest them.

Instead of condemning the drive-by murder, the Fatah movement and its leader embraced the assassins as "martyrs." Abbas went so far as to send his personal emissary to visit the families of the three. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself visited their homes, accompanied by two senior PA officials - Internal Affairs Minister Said Abu Ali, who oversees the PA security agencies, and Police Director-General Hazem Atallah.

Moreover, Abbas condemned the killing of the three terrorists and declared that the PA would "review" its security cooperation with Israel as a result.

This situation transcends absurdity. The leader of the very organization that sent Hai's killers threatens to end "security cooperation" with Israel because it sought to apprehend them, while the very officials who went to pay their respects to the families of the "martyrs" are supposedly Israel's partners in fighting terror.

The involvement of the ruling Palestinian movement in terrorism represents a blatant violation of the road map and makes a mockery of the PA's supposed readiness for peace.

NONE OF the above scenarios touches upon Hamas-dictated Gaza; it is still the "moderate" West Bank we are discussing.

If negotiations recommence this month, it will not be long before Israel comes under renewed international pressure to make "confidence-building" gestures to the Palestinians. Inevitably, these will include the relaxation of the stringent security measures in place in Judea and Samaria. It is therefore vital that the government make clear that there can be no return to the failed policies of the 1990s.

We have been here before. In the days of Oslo, a similar "peace process" based on a faulty premise was launched; Israel withdrew from territory and allowed the development of a large Palestinian armed force. Then as now, this force was notionally supposed to help fight terror. Then as now, the Palestinian armed forces largely ignored and sometimes cooperated with the terrorists, culminating in a war against Israel - the second intifada.

It took four years and more than 1,000 lives before tough measures broke the Palestinian terrorist organizations and allowed normal life to return to Israel's cities and towns. The quiet that has largely held in the past five years is a direct result of the measures put in place by Israel's security forces following Operation Defensive Shield.

Today, as a result of the uncompromising fight waged against terror, normal life has also become possible for the Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria. The rule of armed militias has gone, and the Palestinian economy had grown at incredible rates while the rest of the world is experiencing a financial crisis.

THE MURDER of Hai, however, demonstrates just how precarious the true situation is - and the response of the PA makes a mockery of the naïve notion that it constitutes a genuine partner for peace. Israel must make crystal clear that the lives of its citizens will not be placed at risk again to facilitate the illusion of a "peace process."

The reality is that there is currently no partner for peace on the Palestinian side. There is nothing to be gained by finessing this fact, or by seeking to disguise it. Given this situation, all concessions to the PA will serve only to embolden the enemy and endanger Israelis. As the "peace process" road show gets ready to come back to town, responsible Israelis will be watching carefully to ensure that the tragic mistakes of the 1990s are not repeated.

The writer is deputy speaker of the Knesset and chairman of World Likud.