The most popular figure in Israel’s 2019 election cycle is not even running. In fact, he has been dead for 27 years, and for significant periods in his life, he was ostracized politically and considered a radical provocateur. In this election season, the mythological head of the Likud, former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, has become a model of leadership, morality and values. His popularity crosses party lines, with both left and right seeking to appropriate his memory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rivals are even using Begin against him.

One cannot escape Begin these days. Social media is awash in his photos, quotes and clips of his speeches as if he were a leading candidate in the April 9 elections. Millions of Israelis never knew him; they were born or immigrated to Israel after his death. Some were unaware of his existence until now and are being exposed to him for the first time.

This riveting phenomenon points to a yearning for a different kind of politics, for a modest and courageous leadership striving for peace. In his first term in office, Begin led the peace negotiations and 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. On the other hand, he also led the first Lebanon War in 1982, known as a “war of choice,” which resulted in hundreds of deaths and earned him the label of a “murderer” in left-wing protests.

For years, Israel’s founding father, and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion was considered the ultimate symbol of leadership, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was seen as the model of a leader who paid with his life for a courageous, principled move. This current nostalgia for Begin is different — if for no other reason than the fact that the left wing, too, has appropriated him years after dubbing him a dangerous warmonger.