Ira Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science and public administration at Hebrew University.
His books, which are available on Amazon, include:
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Among the flurries swirling around this tiny country are uncertainties about its future. Some see our destiny dependent on reaching an agreement with the Palestinians. However, Palestinians have been saying no for more than 80 years, and are currently on the cusp of another civil war among who knows how […]
Political change most likely when incremental Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A Palestinian used his car as a weapon and drove into a cluster of soldiers alongside an IDF base in the West Bank. He killed two and injured two others. A few days later, a Palestinian stabbed a security guard in Jerusalem’s Old City. Those were the third, fourth, and
Palestinian terror, American mass shootings Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USAJERUSALEM — Is this another occasion to sit shiva for the idea of a Palestinian state? Or yet another indication that the idea is well within the realm of dreamland, not to die, but not to achieve anything real? Several events qualify for the label of strategic, in the sense that they signal abject failure
Will there ever be a nation of Palestine? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The story is an old one, repeated several times in history, literature, film, and Israel’s reality. Most famous is the story of Judas Iscariot, and the use of the label “Judas” for a person turning against a figure to whom the turncoat had been loyal.. The term is used not
Former allies turning on Netanyahu Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Our friends are worried. Young American Jews are in danger of disappearing via intermarriages at rates of 50 percent or more. Many are ill informed and disinterested in Israel. Key figures in AIPAC have come out in support of a Palestinian State, against sentiments in the Israeli government. Many Democrats,
Is Israel isolated? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Bibi is as fascinating as he is worrying. His skills as politician and public speaker qualify for the label of wunderkind, even as he approaches his 70th birthday. Yet his personal appetites, those of his wife and at least one of his sons, and associates who may be even more
Bibi’ political instincts keep him afloat Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — We’re reading snippets, unconfirmed, of what is said to be the Trump Administration’s proposal for an Israel-Palestinian peace accord. Israelis can’t bet less than 10 agorot on the deal, the equivalent of 3 US cents. One and five agorot coins are no longer in circulation. Americans, living with sillier traditions, and
Why does Trump even bother about a Mideast peace? Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Is the left to blame? The argument is not without its problems. However, in both Israel and the United States, the failure of politics on the left, must take at least a bit of the blame for what’s happening at the peaks of government. The pathos of Donald Trump owes
Is the political left responsible for today’s messes? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Some years ago, my friend Malcolm Feeley dealt with crime in the streets via a book entitled, The Process is the Punishment. His theme was that a great deal of crime–including violence–that occurs in the ghettos is not formally punished. The police can’t find conclusive evidence, the courts are jammed,
For Netanyahu, process is punishment Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — We had a right to cheer, or at least to be satisfied, by Donald Trump’s announcements that he recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and that Israel is not the heart of the Middle East’s problems. We also have a right to question the wisdom of the announcements, their
Weighing the impact of Trump’s Jerusalem declaration Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Prominent in what’s similar between the Great Leaders of the US and Israel are their claims about the media. Fake news, especially from the mainstream-leftwing print and electronic. Those who worry see these preoccupations as the tricks of demagogues. Some have compared them with how Hitler moved toward the complete
Others before Bibi and Donald castigated ‘fake news’ Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The label and the concept of Final Solution have no place in Israeli discourse. What’s behind this column is not the Holocaust, nor any perception of dire threat, but the importance of continuity. None should be more aware than Jews that history does not end. And none should be more
No solutions likely for Israeli Jews, Arabs Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It’s hard to get away from the men at the top of the two governments most important to these fingers. They appear to be close to one another with respect to policies of mutual interest, and they are both at the focus of severe criticism, with many of their countrypeople, and
Comparing the tsuris of Bibi and Donald Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Trump’s speeches, and what has happened since, remind us once again about the marginality of Jews. Some may feel comfortable, and justly, given his realism about Jerusalem the Western Wall, and non-Israeli sources of problems throughout the Middle East. But Muslims, and Europeans, are rabid, or upset about what he
How marginal we Jews really are Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA