LONDON – As a general, Ariel Sharon was a master of the unorthodox attack, surprising the enemy and pressing the advantage to sow chaos in its ranks. Now, as prime minister, he is inflicting the same tactics on his own party colleagues.

His political maneuver, breaking away from the main parties to launch a new “centrist” party, has been tried many times in Israeli politics. All the attempts have ended in failure.

Some groups got impressive results, and often secured cabinet seats. But none ever took power, and all ultimately collapsed.

The father of the state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, launched his breakaway Rafi Party in 1963, winning just seven seats. It rejoined the mainstream Labor movement in 1968.

One of Israel’s most respected early military leaders, Yigael Yadin, founded the Democratic Movement for Change which won 15 seats in the 1977 elections but disintegrated a year later.

More recently, a former chief-of-staff, Amnon-Lipkin Shahak, launched a center party with another general, Yitzhak Mordechai, and the daughter of the slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff. They won six seats in the 1999 elections, but broke up.

What is different this time around is that Mr. Sharon is the first sitting prime minister to go his own way. Mr. Sharon is calculating that his name will carry more prestige with Likud voters than that of the party.

It is an important moment in Israeli politics. The opposition Labor Party has ditched its venerable leader, Shimon Peres. And Mr. Sharon has ditched his venerable party. The Hebrew daily, Ha’aretz, summed it up: “Sharon initiated the foundation of the Likud in 1973, and is now going to be the one who brings about its dismantlement, just like he did with the settlements he fostered and later destroyed.”

Some envisage the equivalent of a feeding frenzy on Likud. They believe Mr. Sharon will tear out the party’s heart on issues of peace and security.

Meanwhile the new leader of the Labor Party, the Moroccan-born Amir Peretz, will gnaw away at its limbs: the base of voters among oriental Jews.

But it is equally possible that Mr. Sharon, denuded of his Likud mantle, will fail to impress Israeli voters and that Mr. Peretz is too dovish and unknown a leader to win over disenchanted Likudniks.

The leadership of the country could then pass on to a more militant Likud Party led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who has staked out a position against concessions to the Palestinian Arabs.

Interestingly, Mr. Peres, who joined Ben-Gurion in the wilderness of his Rafi era, is not rushing to join Mr. Sharon in his centrist adventure.

The outside world, particularly America, which built up its policy around support for Mr. Sharon’s “unilateral” disengagement “from the Gaza Strip last September, can now only stand aside while the political drama is played out in Israel.

There is an assumption that Mr. Sharon has only made the gamble because he has ambitious plans for further peace moves – perhaps more Gaza-style “unilateral” withdrawals from parts of the West Bank. But will they be enough to reach a lasting peace?

After a lifetime spent fighting Israel’s wars, trying to destroy the Palestinian movement, and building up settlements, Mr. Sharon has started to tell visitors that only he can make peace with Palestinian Arabs.