Ethos of conflict, culture of conflict, and films about conflicts: The gap between theory and fictional reality

The article compares the definitions and components of an ethos of conflict to one case study of cultural texts produced in a society in an intractable conflict: Israeli films produced in the last 3 decades that deal with the Israeli-Lebanon conflict. These films criticize the national narrative and at the same time preserve and support it further. The findings show that an ethos of conflict can be retained even when the in-group manifests self-criticism, does not full-heartedly embrace and justify its own goals, does not de-legitimize or show negative attributions to the opponent, and is ambivalent on topics of patriotism and victimization. Because of the findings, it is claimed that an ethos of conflict-as it is produced and manifested in cultural texts-can exist without the majority of its components; therefore, its current definitions should be revised.