Ever since he was first elected premier 18 years ago at the tender age of 47, Benjamin Netanyahu has marketed himself as the strong and powerful leader of a small state surrounded by enemies threatening its destruction. He promoted himself as Israel’s only real alternative to feeble leaders such as former President Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, all of whom gamble with the country’s security.
Netanyahu has led the Likud for a grand total of five election campaigns. In all of them, his campaign slogans contained the words “strong,” “powerful” or “security.” In the 1996 elections, Netanyahu roundly defeated Peres after accusing the latter of intending to divide Jerusalem on the heels of a wave of terror attacks, with the slogan, “Netanyahu — Forging a Secure Peace.” In that era, only a few months after the assassination of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, “peace” was still a strong bargaining chip in Israeli publics, and Netanyahu’s campaign managers took pains to incorporate the word in his slogan. It was effective.