:"אין כמוך ביבי חיים שלי בלב": ישראלים כותבים לראש הממשלה

The paper examines online comments written by the supporters of former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to his Facebook posts during the 2020election campaign. While previous studies have focused on negative representations of Israelis online, this study focuses mostly on positive representations that can be linked to the commenters’ Israeli identity.The paper discusses the thematic, pragmatic, linguistic, and para-linguistic discursive strategies used by the commenters in two speech act categories – expressives and directives – both in appealing to Netanyahu, and to other commenters. My aim is to show that such strategies reflect characteristics associated with Israeli and even “Sabra”identity, mainly directness, candor, openness, light-heartedness, and sociability, as well as values and codes identified with Israeli culture and Jewish tradition. The paper shows that by using these strategies the commenters position themselves as close and equal to Netanyahu, thereby increasing solidarity within their political wing.