Charismatic, enigmatic, he's Israel's longest serving prime minister and faces no serious political challenger.
Yet Benjamin Netanyahu has rarely shown any signs that he has strategic vision.
Rather, his longevity at the top of Israeli politics can be put down to his focus on short term tactical issues.
The latest sign of this is his announcement that Israel should prepare itself for a longer running conflict in Gaza.
He has been told by his generals that they need more time, and more depth of penetration into Gaza's landscape, to find and destroy Hamas' network of tunnels which reach into Israeli territory, and have been used to deadly effect.
They will also have told him that they need more time to destroy Hamas rocket stockpiles and production warehouses.
Mr Netanyahu says Israel should prepare for a longer running conflict So a push will most likely go ahead.
The Israeli Prime Minister has weathered international condemnation of both his leadership and that of Hamas over the huge civilian death toll.
He has endured an increasingly bitter relationship with Israel's main ally and aid Sugar Daddy, the USA.
And he may even be risking a fully-fledged third intifada on the West Bank.
These are tactical problems with long-term effects on Israel's strategic alliances with the US, but also with the tougher talking Europeans, and risk plunging Israel back into the mire of a full-scale occupation of the Palestinian territories.
'Bibi', as he is usually known even to his opponents, had until mid-July publicly supported the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.
His ministers were part of talks with the Palestinians brokered by John Kerry, the US Secretary of State.
But they went nowhere and collapsed in the first quarter of this year.
He'd never shown much actual enthusiasm for a final settlement.
He'd preferred to manage the tactical problem of expanding illegal Jewish settlements into Palestinians lands and maintaining a status quo.
The Europeans warned that this was unsustainable - occasionally suggesting Israel risked being labelled an "apartheid state", and spelling out that it cannot claim to be a democracy while occupying another nation for almost 50 years.
On July 12, Mr Netanyahu said: "There cannot be a situation, under any agreement in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan."
Meaning that while he's the PM there cannot be an end to Israel military control of the West Bank - therefore no two-state solution.
It proves his preference for managing tactical problems rather than solving strategic issues.
So Israel's operation in Gaza should be seen through the same lens.
It's officially aimed at destroying the military capabilities of Hamas. It doesn't have any grander end game than that.
It may succeed in its short-term tactical mission. That would suit Mr Netanyahu.
But it won't do anything to advance peace and therefore make the region safer for Israelis and guarantee their country's strategic longevity.
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