Israel's outgoing army commander appeared to cut a large chunk of ground from under Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's negotiating position yesterday when he said that agreeing to a US proposal to cede 13 per cent of the West Bank would not necessarily endanger national security.
But the Prime Minister's office did not reject the remarks outright and, in a significant softening of the official government line, argued that proof of Palestinian "peaceful intent" might persuade the government to make greater territorial concessions.
For much of this year Mr Netanyahu has infuriated US mediators by rejecting the 13 per cent compromise for the next phased withdrawal, which the Americans say the Israeli Prime Minister suggested in the first place.
Mr Netanyahu has thus far offered only 9 per cent of the West Bank officially, plus another 2 per cent in informal bargaining. Agreement on the redeployment is essential for broader peace talks, stalled for the past 16 months, to resume.
Lieut Gen Amnon Shahak, in his last week as army chief-of-staff, appeared to take direct aim at Mr Netanyahu's security argument in a string of farewell press interviews, in which he maintained size was not everything.
"The way I see it, the difference between 11 and 13 per cent, or 9 and 13 per cent - it's not that it is trivial, not that it is unimportant - but it is certainly not very, very dramatic," he told army radio. "The main thing is not only the size of the land given back, but under what conditions and in what atmosphere."
Commenting on the general's remarks, the Prime Minister's spokesman, Mr David Bar-Illan, claimed they did not contradict government policy, saying trust could be traded for territory.
Although the government's appraisal of Palestinian "peaceful intent" is likely to be far more demanding than that of the Israeli opposition or US diplomats, analysts said Mr Bar-Illan's confirmation that percentage limits on Israeli withdrawal were not carved in stone reflected a significant change of tack.
But even before Gen Shahak's remarks, the army was known to be considerably more doveish than Mr Netanyahu on territorial issues and over its own long-term obligation to protect Jewish settlers in areas of the West Bank and Gaza still under Israeli military occupation.
In repeated off-the-record briefings, senior military officers have warned that failure to reach a compromise, coupled with the worsening breakdown in trust between the two sides, could lead to a conflagration in the occupied territories.
A clash was narrowly averted on Thursday night when Israeli and Palestinian troops pointed weapons at each other in a standoff over access to a strategic road in Gaza.