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 — Wiggling may not be a central concept in the professional literature of scholars who seek to explain international relations. “Wiggle” is often used with respect to the rapid movement of ears or fingers, but it is also used to describe the act of avoiding something perhaps by devious means. Its […]
For Israeli policy makers, wiggling has its benefits Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — What to do about radical Islam? There ain’t much anybody can do. It’s one of our insoluble problems. For those of us outside areas of the Middle East and Africa where one or another radical movement established itself, the problem may grow with the defeat of the extremists in
Terrorism may long remain in our future Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — What’ll it take to get rid of Trump? It won’t be easy. It shouldn’t be, given his election. One should be careful of messing the aura of legitimacy, even for a boor who can’t express a sentence in his native language, has flirted with a government considered a serious antagonist
How long can Trump, Netanyahu stay in office? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Neither of the societies that I have called my own are at peace. Neither are they at war. It’s something in between, with enough tension to cause us to think, or at least to wonder. Here there continues the almost daily efforts of Arabs or Palestinians–whatever term is appropriate–to kill
Parallel tsuris in Israel and the U.S. Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — We recently had the pleasure of hosting a family of Japanese friends on our balcony. Along with the view, extending 35 miles to the lights of Amman, in contrast with their Tokyo view to the nearby apartment house, we talked at length, as we have done in the past, about
Why isn’t Japan as repentant as Germany? Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Jewish HistoryBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Between the lines, if not clearly in the lines of nearly every news broadcast is the question of how close are police investigators to the Prime Minister. Except for what seems to have been a temporary uptick in tensions about the Temple Mount, Jordan, and Jaffa, we’ve been dealing with
The many judicial probes into Bibi Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The latest acts in the long running saga of Elor Azaria emphasize the deep divisions among Israeli Jews. There are also sharpening gaps between Israeli Jews and those of the Diaspora. Especially prominent are those separating us from the large Jewish community in the United States. The Azaria problem is
Azaria case sharply divides Israelis Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It’s not yet clear that the commotions surrounding the Temple Mount and the incident in Amman are behind us. An optimist’s view is that two weeks of demonstrations, nastiness from the pinnacle of the Jordanian government as well as the Palestine National Authority, a few deaths and perhaps a couple
Comparing Israel and U.S. minorities Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Elliott Abrams’ Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Police after the Arab Spring (A Council on Foreign Relations Book, Cambridge University Press, 2017) is both a useful assessment of Arab Spring and what came next, and an insightful commentary on the nature of a world power and those who serve it.
U.S. realism and idealism in the Middle East Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It’s not the same arithmetic taught at the Highland School in the 1940s. However, it’s a central component in the rules of the game that allow Arabs and Jews to manage alongside one another in the Middle East. And by extension, how the rest of the world can accommodate itself
Middle Eastern arithmetic Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The Temple Mount, Friday prayers, metal detectors, and the incitement of Muslim religious and political leaders were as exciting and worrying as we’ve seen for some time. Commentators and prominent officials were adding to the noise, with competing assessments of how we’ve gotten here, who was responsible, and what should
Temple Mount fight is over power Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It was best not to write about this right away. Needed to see how it would percolate. It could have been massive or a momentary blip testing the level of accommodation between Israel, the Palestinians, and other Muslims. Truth is, that it is still tense, with Friday prayers posing a challenge
Tension at the Temple Mount Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Bibi’s strong, politically, despite years of police inquiries, and reports suggesting that he might be on the edge of a criminal indictment. Recent polls indicate that he is usually the favorite as Prime Minister in the event of an election. Bibi’s lead over others has never been large, but Israeli
Why Bibi Netanyahu stays on top Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Malcolm Gladwell’s “Saigon 1965,” a chapter in his podcast Revisionist History, brought me back to the University of Wisconsin 1968-75. I participated in campus discussions on Vietnam, and smelled the tear gas used against mass protests. Gladwell’s message is that a mass of information about the Vietcong lent itself to
Vietnam and Israel, a comparison Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East