The campaign that didn't ask to vote for David Amsalem - until he asked himself | Nimrod Eliran Sabach

There is an almost automatic rule in political campaigns: the candidate must ask. Ask for trust. Ask for support. Tell what he has done, explain why he is worthy, and convince the voter to give him the vote. In David Amsalem's campaign, we decided to do almost the opposite.

When we set out, quite a few people raised an eyebrow. Media figures, politicians, and people familiar with campaigns asked me again and again: why are you talking about David in the third person? Where is the candidate? Why doesn't he say "I did," "I led," "I ask for your support"?

There were also those who told me it was detached. That it was dangerous. That a campaign where the candidate asks for almost nothing for himself is a campaign that gives up in advance on one of the most basic tools in politics. I listened to everyone. And I continued on exactly the same path.

Not because I wanted to invent a patent. Certainly not to be different by force. But because after many years of dealing with strategy and campaigns, I learned that the biggest mistake one can make is to take a real candidate and force him into a "candidate" template.

A good strategy does not start with a slogan. It starts with the truth. And the truth in David's case was very simple: David Amsalem knows how to fight for others. It is much less natural for him to ask for himself. So we decided that we would ask for him.

We did not start from a position of advantage

One must tell the truth even when it is less comfortable. David did not arrive at these primaries after the best political term of his life.

It began with a deep crisis between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the distribution of roles. David thought his place was elsewhere. There were expectations, there were disappointments, there was a disconnect, and at a certain stage, he even decided to remain outside the government.

Later, he entered the government. I was involved in this process as well, and I know how complex it was for him to make the decision. David did what he knows how to do even when not everything worked out exactly as he wanted - he remained a team player. But above all, he remained a player with a soul.

Our strategic difficulty was greater. The Likud has changed. October 7th also changed the psychology of a large part of the voters. A huge demand was created for new or renewing figures who represent power, struggle, confrontation, a sharp and fearless voice.

Into this space entered strong players. Amichai Chikli, Moshe Saada, Tally Gotliv, and others. Each in their own way knew how to touch a real need of a public that wanted them to fight for it. And suddenly, the man who did this long before it became a trend had to remind people who he is.

Our challenge was not to reinvent David. The challenge was to make people remember the David they already know.

Two campaigns within one campaign

From the first moment, we divided the election campaign into two completely different arenas. The first was the organized votes.

There are no magic tricks there. There is no viral video that replaces field work. This is almost surgical work - lists, groups, relationships, field leaders, power centers, commitments, re-checks, and precise management of every possible vote. The team that handled this arena worked with tweezers.

The goal was to build a floor for David. But I knew that a floor would not be enough. To reach the place where we wanted to see David, we had to win in the second arena - the free votes.

Those who do not wait for a list from anyone. Those who decide from the heart, from the head, from the phone, from the video they saw in the morning, and from the feeling with which they arrive at the ballot box. And there the real campaign was born.

"This is David"

We didn't want to tell people that David is strong. We wanted to remind them why they know he is strong. We didn't want David to stand in front of a camera and say he is a people person. We wanted to bring the people.

We didn't want him to say he is loyal to the path. We wanted to open the archive, go back to the moments, the struggles, the speeches, the actions, the faith, the friendship, and the sensitivity - and let the public reach the conclusion by itself.

And so "This is David" was born. Every time we took another part of the man. Once the fighter. Once the man of faith. Once the man of Jerusalem. Once the one who stands against large systems and is not afraid. Once the one who fights for people who usually don't have a microphone. And once the person behind the politician.

We didn't build a statue. We built a mosaic.

As the campaign progressed, this mosaic began to remind people of something that the political noise of recent years had made them forget a little: David Amsalem was not born on social media. He was not born on October 7th. And he certainly didn't invent himself for the primaries. He is simply David.

And then came the question: where is David?

In almost every conversation with media figures, the same wonder returned. "Why doesn't he ask?" "What is this campaign in the third person?" "Who does a campaign where everyone talks about the candidate except the candidate?"

My answer was the same: because that is exactly David.

If I had forced him for a month to stand and tell how great he is, how important he is, and how much he deserves - maybe I would have received a proper campaign. But I would have lost the candidate. And in a political campaign, the moment you lost the person and were left only with the candidate, you usually lost the voter as well.

Therefore, we did the opposite. David did not ask. We asked for him.

But this "we" was not an advertising agency. These were the field people. The friends. The people he met along the way. The people of faith. People who worked with him. People who love him. People who remember what he did for them and for the Likud. They became his voice.

For me, this was the heart of the strategic idea. Instead of a candidate who tells the public why the public needs him - the public tells the public why it needs the candidate.

And only at the moment of truth did he ask

We kept David's personal request almost until the end. Not because we forgot it. Because we wanted it to have meaning.

After weeks in which others told about him, the moment arrived when he looked at the members himself and said: now I ask for your trust. And suddenly this sentence was worth much more.

Because when the person who almost never asks for himself asks once - they listen. This was not just another call to action. This was a moment.

And in the end, this is David

On Sunday, at an hour when other headquarters were immersed in lists, in phones, in calculations, and in the deals of the last hours, David went to the graves of righteous men. Not for a picture. Not for a video. To pray.

To ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to give him the right to continue on the path he believes in and to do for the people of Israel.

When I heard about this, I thought to myself that one could have saved many strategy presentations. Because in the end, the whole campaign is inside this moment.

We can build a strategy. Analyze numbers. Segment audiences. Manage the field. Write messages. Produce films. Measure reactions and change moves in real time.

And this is my profession. I have been doing it for many years, and I believe in it with all my heart. But there is one thing that a strategist can never produce: a soul.

If it exists, our role is to identify it, protect it, and let it reach the public without destroying it along the way. And this is perhaps the thing I take with me from this campaign.

Not every campaign needs to shout louder. Sometimes you just need to know what not to cover with noise.

They said the third person wouldn't work. They said a candidate must ask. They said it wasn't by the book. Maybe.

But I never thought that a strategist's role is to work by the book. His role is to understand the person sitting in front of him, to understand the public in front of him, and to find the shortest and most real path that connects them.

In this case, the path was David.

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Nimrod Eliran Sabach is a strategic consultant and campaign manager in Israel and abroad. He advises leaders and public figures and accompanies political and public systems. He has been accompanying David Amsalem for 16 years - professionally, politically, and above all on a long joint path.

And perhaps that is why the slogan we chose at the beginning of the journey received at its end a meaning much greater than we planned: strengthening the path.

Because in the end, we didn't ask the Likudniks to invent a new David Amsalem. We asked them to remember the one who was there all along.

And this is David.