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.

That was the last time Netanyahu used it, though. When he ran for a second time for the premiership against Barak in 1999, he chose the slogan “A Strong Leader for Israel.” This time he was roundly defeated, because he faced off against the former chief of staff, then viewed as Rabin’s successor.

Netanyahu stepped back from politics after his defeat, only to return a few years later. In the meantime, he marketed himself as a worried citizen facing the collapse of the Oslo Accord and the beginning of the second intifada in 2000. After returning to lead the Likud, Netanyahu ran against Olmert’s Kadima party in 2006. At that time, after the victory over Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu promised Israelis that in comparison to the other contenders, he was “Strong against Hamas.” On election day, Netanyahu and the Likud were crushed to bits with only 12 mandates.