The siege syndrome: The Six Day War and Israeli cinema

This article examines the films produced in Israel after the Six Day War that relate to the war either directly or indirectly. It explores in particular the ways in which these films represented the notion of siege, the fear of a recurring Holocaust, in Israeli public discourse and reflected the radical changes in Jewish-Israeli identity after the war, from the euphoria of victory and discourse of national redemption and boundless territory to more sober and critical reflections on the results of that victory. It argues that the sense of siege, at first overcome in the films that employed the national-heroic model, reappeared in later films, with the realization that territorial expansion does not necessarily lead to greater security.