"You've had this evolution in Israeli politics where even Arik Sharon is advocating a Palestinian state and territorial partition," former Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman said. "The most interesting phenomenon in Israeli politics over the last decade or so is the old Likud Party adopting the Labor Party position on territorial partition and on a Palestinian state. This is an extraordinarily positive evolution in Israeli politics."

Rodman, responsible for Pentagon international security affairs from 2001 until February 2007, addressed the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute's annual strategy conference on March 27. Rodman, who moved to the Brookings Institution, said the United States has failed to exploit the transformation of Israel's right-wing because of the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel.

"And the Palestinians elect a Hamas government that wants to go back to the 1946 borders or God knows what their position," Rodman said. "This is insane and suicidal, literally and figuratively for the Palestinians. This is their choice. Right now, the diplomacy is frustrated because of who is the interlocutor."

A U.S. official said Rodman's assessment reflected that of most career officers in both the Pentagon and State Department. The official said that during the Bush administration, senior officials urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George Bush to support Sharon's plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

"The overriding U.S. assessment continues to be that any Israeli withdrawal is a positive development and bolsters U.S. influence in the Arab world," the official said.

Rodman cited the sea change in Israeli politics over the last 35 years. He recalled accompanying then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in shuttles between Egypt and Israel. At the time, the former Pentagon official said, angry Israelis, outraged by U.S. pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, tried to overturn Kissinger's car.

Today, the Bush administration has sought to strengthen Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to convince Palestinians to recognize Israel, Rodman said. He said the United States was ready to pressure Israel to accept any compromise with the Palestinians.

"We are trying to navigate through this and strengthen Abbas, and our job is to help him gain mastery over the Palestinian front so you get some sensible compromise position," Rodman said. "The United States has shown many times in the last 30 years that we are ready to use our influence with Israel when there is some plausible compromise on the table. And we've done that a number of times."