Long vilified on the world stage as Israel's most intransigent hardliner, Ariel Sharon headed yesterday for a UN summit expected to yield accolades for a Gaza pull-out seen as a possible catalyst for peacemaking.
Mr Sharon's address to the General Assembly in New York tomorrow will be the clearest sign yet of how much his image has been transformed by Israel's first evacuation of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.
"The Prime Minister will be the star of the summit," Danny Gillerman, Israel's UN ambassador, predicted on Israel Radio.
It will be especially poignant for many Israelis who regard the General Assembly as a bastion of anti-Israel sentiment for frequent votes against occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and a since-revoked 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.
Israel has already begun reaping the diplomatic dividends of its Gaza withdrawal, completed on Monday when it ended 38 years of military presence in the tiny coastal territory and turned it over to the Palestinians.
There has been a warming of ties with Europe, a regular critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and signs of a thaw in relations with some longtime foes in the Muslim world.
Not long ago, the notion that the "Bulldozer" of Israel's settlement project would tear down part of his own project was unthinkable. The burly, 77-year-old ex-general made his name in war and politics for never giving an inch.
Mr Sharon drew Arab enmity for directing Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, in which Christian militia allies massacred Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps, and later for his crushing response to a Palestinian uprising that erupted after he visited a sensitive Jerusalem shrine in 2000.
But Mr Sharon astonished friend and foe alike in 2003 when he said Israel would have to evacuate some enclaves to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians and safeguard its demographics as a Jewish state.
US-led mediators now hope the withdrawal, entailing the removal of 9,000 settlers from 21 enclaves in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank, will spur renewed peace moves after nearly five years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Palestinian leaders, while welcoming any pull-out from occupied land, remain sceptical of Mr Sharon, particularly due to his insistence that Israel will keep large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank under any future peace deal.
They fear that Gaza may be all they will get, leaving them with little chance of a viable state.
Mr Sharon is expected to receive public praise from world leaders for the pull-out but also behind-the-scenes pressure for further gestures towards the Palestinians.
Mr Sharon, facing a revolt in his rightist Likud party, seems in no mood for concessions. His speech will deliver what aides said would be a clear message: the ball is now in the Palestinian court.
"He will say: 'What I said I was going to accomplish, I accomplished - the disengagement. This offers an opportunity to the Palestinians, and it's their turn,'" a senior official said.
Mr Sharon has said talks on Palestinian statehood cannot resume unless President Mahmoud Abbas disarms militants. Abbas declared a ceasefire along with Sharon last February and has called on militant groups to end armed conflict with Israel.
At the United Nations, which is holding a world summit, Mr Sharon is expected to talk to a string of leaders including US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jordan's King Abdullah.
At some of the meetings, Mr Sharon could face tough questions about his pledge to expand large West Bank settlements.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa said he would use his own speech to the General Assembly to appeal for international pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion.
Some 245,000 settlers live in the West Bank, isolated from 2.4 million Palestinians. The World Court has called the settlements illegal. Israel disputes this.
Mr Sharon's speech will be broadcast in prime time in Israel, where he faces a Likud leadership challenge from Benjamin Netanyahu, who quit as Finance Minister to protest against the Gaza pull-out and is trying to unseat him for the next election.