How resilient is national pride in the face of chronic political violence? Former studies mostly focused on the economic effects of conflicts and their recurrence and on social reactions to conflict and terrorism, have produced valuable insights. However, they consistently overlooked the effect of conflict’s aftermath and the important differentiation between diverse outcomes of political violence. The current study tests the validity of predictions derived from Social Identity theory on Identity salience shifts, focusing on national pride levels in Israel across a tempestuous nine-year period, from 2003 to 2013. This allows me to distinguish the short-term impact of different conflict outcomes from the long-term influence on national longevity and to examine whether group performance mitigates the said effect. I find that the effect of experiencing political violence on national pride among Israelis is indeed dependent on the perceived outcome of such violence (whether it was successful or unsuccessful). I assess said influence on different groups within the Israeli public and conclude that the corrosive influence of political violence outcomes on national pride is most powerful among Arab Israelis, is mildly significant among former Soviet Union immigrants and non-significant among Jewish Israelis. I also find that the effect of different outcomes of political violence on national pride is highly mitigated by political affiliation and is most profound among the right wing supporters. I discuss the implications of the findings regarding longevity of national pride in light of recurrent political violence in general and for Israel- a nation-state, in particular.
