Benjamin Netanyahu's message to Israeli voters: 'Never mind the economy - I'll keep your family safe'

Bibi Netanyahu put himself at the centre of his re-election campaign.

From light-hearted TV campaign adds depicting him as the babysitter who will protect Israel’s children, to his barn-storming speech to the US Congress where he presented himself as the defender of the Jewish people, it’s been all about him.

The polls say it hasn’t worked.

The latest one has the prime minister four Knesset seats behind the main opposition party, and its leader Isaac Herzog.

Like many other opposition parties in Israel, Herzog has made ‘getting rid of Bibi’ a central plank of his campaign.

If Israel’s voters are indeed ready for a change, it’s not because they don’t share his concerns about a nuclear Iran.

It’s just that they’ve been hearing Bibi talk about them for 20 years now and at this moment, they’re a whole lot more concerned about economic issues.

The very high cost of living in Israel – the price of food, and the ever-increasing cost of housing – are not issues that Netanyahu has really talked about in this campaign.

But Herzog has, and it’s paid off for him in the polls.

So in the campaign’s final moments, Bibi has gone back to his base, trying to gather support from those parties on the right of Israeli politics with statements and interviews about the various threats to Israel, and his determination not to make concessions to the Palestinians.

His message to those voters who may still be deciding is ‘never mind the economy, if you vote for the other guy, you and your family will not be safe.’