Open Search form

Steve Apfel

Apply for a Blog

Jul 24, 2017, 11:57 PM

A blessing and a curse

The rabbi hired to bless a conference then cursed Israel Hired to bless a political conference, Rabbi Sa’ar Shaked took the opportunity to curse Israel. The biblical story of Balaam, inverted, comes to mind. Hired to curse Israel, the wily...

Jul 12, 2017, 8:57 PM

Questions for Rabbi Shaked of Beit Emanuel, Johannesburg

The Rabbi’s self-declared role To hold a mirror up to society To speak the truth To hold Israel accountable To demand equality and justice Holding up a mirror to society Rabbi Shaked addressed ANC delegates at their policy conference in Johannesburg. He knew that they knew that under the...

Jun 8, 2017, 8:43 AM

What lies beneath Jewish plans for Table Mountain

In Jewish folklore a dead malcontent may return to possess the living. The troubled soul is known as a dybbuk, and it runs amok making mischief. It may upturn family life in the ghetto or, in the case at...

Jan 26, 2016, 11:55 AM

Is left wing the good side?

David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, is a marker of how left wing intellectuals think. To get your opinion published in Remnick’s highbrow journal you have to belong to the community of good. You have to be Left...

Dec 29, 2015, 2:09 PM

Jesus the Palestinian

Coupling a great figure to some popular cause may give it a universal appeal. And nothing could be simpler. All it takes is for the great figure to be dead, because you don’t want it protesting the liberty taken...

Dec 28, 2015, 1:21 PM

That sick label again

Warning labels are in vogue. ‘Cigarettes can seriously damage your health’. ‘Caution -- hot liquid’ ‘Don’t drink and drive.’ Maybe Europe wants to wean the public off a problematic nation. ‘Warning -- Product of Israel!’ After you peel off the legal wrapper...

Mar 21, 2015, 9:13 AM

Obama’s Pact with the Devil

It is from Marlowe’s character Dr Faustus we learn that if you must bargain with the devil then prepare for the worst case scenario. The demon, right after holding out a deal to die for, went so far as...

Jul 22, 2014, 11:31 AM

Is God pro-Israel?

The question alone would give opponents, even the ungodly, apoplexy. God pro-Israel! At least one rival faith stands or falls on the exile of God-forsaken wandering Jews, and if it allows modern Israel to survive it will not allow...

Dec 31, 2013, 3:10 PM

How Nelson Mandela helped me fight anti-Israel media

It began with a string of letter and emails, then continued that way for three years. I opened the process with a letter dropped into the Nelson Mandela Foundation two blocks away in Johannesburg. 23rd January 2002 Past President, Mr Nelson Mandela Dear Mr....

May 18, 2013, 11:32 PM

Are storm clouds over Rhodes campus as ugly as they were over Cambridge?

The Cambridge fiasco is one more battle anti-Zionists will chalk up. They have won a few – too many – but never for bigger loot than Professor Stephen Hawkins who got snatched for the academic boycott with nary a...

Load more

About Me

The writer is a prolific author of novels and non-fiction, essayist and commentator on ‘Enemies of Zion’ which happens also to be the title of his latest book. His works are The Paymaster, 1998; Hadrian’s Echo, 2012; Contributor to ‘War by other means: Israel and its detractors’, 2012; Enemies of Zion, (for publication 2017); and Balaam’s curse ( a novel in progress)