Ira Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science and public administration at Hebrew University.
His books, which are available on Amazon, include:
*Alternative federal solutions to the problem of the administered territories
*Ambiguity, Coping, and Governance: Israeli Experiences in Politics, Religion, and Policymaking
*Ancient and Modern Israel: An Exploration of Political Parallels
*Coping with Terror: An Israeli Perspective
* Governing Israel: Chosen People, Promised Land and Prophetic Tradition
*Governing Jerusalem: Again on the World’s Agenda
* Israel and its Bible: A Political Analysis
* Maligned States: policy accomplishments, problems and opportunities
* Policy Analysis in Political Science
* Policy and Politics in American Governments
* Policy Making in Israel: Routines for Simple Problems and Coping with the Complex
* Politics and Planning in the Holy City
* Politics and Policymaking in Search of Simplicity
* Public Administration: Agencies, Policies, and Politics
* Public Administration Policy Making in Government Agencies
* Public Administration (2nd Edition): Policy Making in Government Agencies
* Regionalism in American Politics
* Rituals of Conflict: Religion, Politics, and Public Policy in Israel
* Spending in the American States
* The Policy Predicament: Making and Implementing Public Policy
* The Political Economy of Israel
* The Politics of Religion and the Religion of Politics
*The Politics of Taxing and Spending
* The Routines of Politics
* The United States: A Study of a Developing Country
* The United States Revisited: A Study of a Still Developing Country
* Urban Politics and Public Policy [Robert Lineberry]
* What Makes Israel Tick: How Domestic Policy-Makers Cope with Restraints
* Wither the State: Politics and Public Enterprise in Three Countries
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–When was the last time you met a happy Jew? It has not been in our blood at least since the Biblical Prophets. They provide models of self-criticism on the border–or over the border–of obsession and just plain nutty. Nothing was good enough. Other prophets who seemed to agree with them on […]
Israeli media critical of IDF performance against Gaza flotilla Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Remember the massacre of Jenin? According to the Palestinian narrative, the IDF killed 3,000 civilians. If there was a Palestinian condemnation of the suicide bombing of a Passover Seder which provoked the operation, it was lost in the commotion. Human Rights Watch, usually unfriendly to Israel, put the death toll in Jenin at
Gaza flotilla is a myth in the making Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–It is sad, even pathetic, but not surprising that the UN meeting of parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons concluded their month long conference by calling for the monitoring of Israel’s nuclear program without mentioning that of Iran. The United States participated in the consensus, but senior officials
Used to isolation in world opinion, where does Israel put its trust? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Immigration is again a hot button in the United States, with attractions for demagogues of right and left. The President has ordered 1,200 National Guard personnel sent to border areas of the Southwest, in response to other politicians demanding that something be done. The targets of this effort are illegal drug shipments
Illegal immigration is a problem throughout the world Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Israelis’ preoccupation with security is focusing on Route 443. It is one of two four lane, high speed, divided highways that link Jerusalem with the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is the favored route for the northern neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and the best way to travel to the expanding complex of Modiin-Reut-Maccabeen-Modiin
Israel Route 443: a challenge for the peace process Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The glass of the political activist is never full. If it seems full, it is only a momentary surge of partial victory. The tea cups of the American extreme right might appear full after their man’s victory in Kentucky, but they are a long way from achieving their dreams. Barack Obama is
Whatever the stage, whatever the cause, absolute outcomes in politics are rare Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Israel suffers from two prominent fault lines in its society. Both are complex, and fragment into further splits that confound any simple remedies. One sets the Arab minority against the Jewish majority. Complicating any application of conventional minority/majority analysis is the proximity of the Palestine and the larger Arab and Muslim communities.
Arabs, ultra-Orthodox adopt contrasting styles in Israel's politics Read More »
Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–We all know that the devil is in the details, and that the language of politics is hyperbole. Those two platitudes will come together in the “proximity talks” between Israel and Palestine that the Americans are reminding us that they worked so hard to create. They may well doom the talks, assuming
Neither side seems ready for real compromise in proximity talks Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– This is a wonderful city for those who admire the past and live to celebrate it. Three thousand years supplies more than enough heroes to fill every square and street corner with memorial sites. Insofar as both Jewish and Muslim traditions condemn graven images, we are saved the grandiose statuary that marks
Jerusalem is a city of contrasts–especially in opinions Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The morning after the beginning of Israeli-Palestinian “proximity talks” found Israel’s media reporting accusations of deception, and denials, coming from important players in Israel, Palestine, and the United States. Did Prime Minister Netanyahu promise not to build in Ramat Shlomo for two years, as indicated by American and Palestinian sources, or did
Proximity talks and Rafi's new party are sources of intrigue in Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–It is not starting well. One commentator described the talks between Israel and the Palestinians as “beginning on the left foot.” Another called them a “farce.” Several estimated their chances of success as “close to zero,” and attributed their plight to American bumbling. Neither the Israeli Prime Minister nor the Palestinian President
Little optimism as Mideast 'peace talks' start anew Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The wet dream of the Palestinians is that someone else will solve their problems by forcing Israel to do what is right. They are told time and again by their leaders that it is only they who have suffered, and only they whose claims are just. To their own harm, much of
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Here we go again. Maybe. The stage is set for the beginning of indirect talks between Israel and the abbreviated Palestine National Authority (West Bank without Gaza). The Arab League has provided its endorsement. Palestinian leaders carried that decision on the basis of “assurances” received from the Americans. They are warning
Mideast proximity peace talks to start up again Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Among the problems in the Jewish State are some of the Jews. The Supreme Court is hearing a petition concerned with the violation of a previous court order that an ultra-Orthodox girls school in Emanuel must integrate Ashkenazi and Sephardi pupils. Ashkenazi parents are keeping their girls away from school rather