Scholars have recently turned to emotions to understand and explain events in world politics. Although this turn is appealing, most scholars have failed to critically examine the relationships between emotion, language, identity and foreign policy. This paper explores these relationships. It ultimately argues that without an explicit appreciation of the emotional narratives that constitute Self/Other relations, we remain hampered in our understanding of how identities come to take shape as they do, why certain identities matter more than others, and how the binding of emotions to entities produces enduring patterns of Self/Other interaction. Through an analysis of United States policy towards the Israeli- Palestinian, this article highlights the importance of emotion and affective practices in world politics.