Q&A: Intellect, Emotion, Heart, and Support for the Palestinians

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Originally published: October 19, 2023

This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Intellect, Emotion, Heart, and Support for the Palestinians

I saw that you wrote that we need to act based on intellect and not let emotions influence our decision-making. What I wanted to ask is: what place does emotion have in our lives and in our perception of reality, if it has any place at all (obviously aside from the fact that it’s simply there)?
I agree that we shouldn’t let emotions run us and that we should act based on intellect, but I’ve noticed that many academics and professors often support the Palestinians and call Hamas’s actions justified, or simply oppose every action by Israel under the claim that Israel is an occupying state. What I’m asking is: those academics and professors supposedly act only from intellect, so how is it that they nevertheless arrive at the conclusion that the Palestinians are right and we are not? Maybe I just made the question longer than necessary, when at its root it is: why do academics and intellectuals tend, for the most part, toward the left side of the political map?

Thank you very much

I’ve written about this in several places on the site. I suggest you search for it.
Academics do not necessarily act or think rationally, and not necessarily more than others do. Education is not intellect. But regarding your question itself, rational consideration can lead different people to opposite conclusions. Not every rational consideration is one-dimensional or must be agreed upon. Still, each person is supposed to exercise rational judgment and not be dragged along by emotions. Even if I think X, that doesn’t mean that anyone who thinks Y is necessarily emotional and acting emotionally, in my view. I myself am also willing to accept that others think differently from me. By the way, these days I’m no longer sure about the right-left political map. It seems that all the great leftists have changed their stripes and are talking like Ben-Gvir.