“I will win, anyway,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said repeatedly in conveying the key message he brought to the studio of Israel’s most watched television news show Feb. 15.

Greeting her viewers at the start of the show, Channel 12 news anchor Yonit Levi announced that Netanyahu was on his way to the studio for an extensive interview. The interview was a surprise. Not only because it had not been announced in advance, but also because its message deviated from Netanyahu’s usual preelection tactics of crying wolf, warning voters that the Likud is about to lose in order to get them out to vote.

Netanyahu’s choice of platform was also surprising given his boycott of Israel’s mainstream television channels that he accuses of bias and of attempts to unseat him. In recent years he has adopted several sympathetic, right-wing radio and television stations such as Channel 20, where he gives interviews to his heart’s content in accordance with the terms he sets. Netanyahu conducts most of his contact with the public on social media: Twitter, Facebook and even TikTok, where his easy presence provides him with an advantage over most other politicians.

Since he rarely troubles himself to appear on major commercial channels, his entry into the Channel 12 studio created a sense of anticipation, with viewers expecting him to wrestle with Levi in order to present himself as the victim of a hostile media. But the minute he removed his black face mask, revealing a broad smile and a relaxed and convivial attitude, it was clear that Netanyahu had adopted a different strategy.