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 — Uncertainty is the human condition. Perhaps a bit more for the Jews than most others, but we’ve managed, most of the time, despite our worries. It ain’t all that bad. If we are uncertain, so are others, and we are not the weakest or the lowest in the pile. Governments […]
Living with uncertainty can be habit forming Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Jews have had a Diaspora at least since the middle of the sixth century before the common era. During the time of the Second Temple, a substantial number, perhaps even a majority, lived outside of the Judean homeland. The Jerusalem-centered Diaspora figures in Christian anti-Semitism, via the episode of Jesus overturning the
Split widens between Israeli and Diaspora Jews Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–We are feeling a wave of resolutions, almost none of them binding on their governments, being taken by European parliaments, in favor of recognizing the State of Palestine. Expressions from Irish leftists supporting their resolution ring like the most barbaric of anti-Semitism. They accuse Israel of slaughtering and raping Palestinians since 1948,
Wave of anti- Israel resolutions counter- productive Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — We are at the height of uncertainty. None of the parties have selected their ranked lists of candidates, a potential rival of Benyamin Netanyahu is still pondering whether to make the race within Likud, and we do not know the full complement of parties and personalities that will align for
Election maneuvers keep Israelis guessing Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It’s not easy to summarize the career and current standing of Benyamin Netanyahu. His seven years in two separate periods as Prime Minister make him the longest serving head of government except for the founding Prime Minister David ben Gurion, whose own two periods as prime minister amounted to 13
Netanyahu is issue of coming Israeli election Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Something has happened to Israeli politics since the late 1990’s. There has been a drop in the weight of the largest parties, as well as a decline in voter turnout. From the election of 1996 onward, the largest party in each election has received an average of 31 percent of the votes.
Israel’s ruling coalitions coming apart sooner Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — In the midst of the noise from various politicians blaming one another for not solving the country’s problems, a 16 year old Palestinian entered a supermarket that serves Jews and Palestinians, with Jewish and Palestinian employees in a West Bank settlement, apparently took a knife from a display in the
Status of minorities in U.S., Israel compared Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The world has, and has always had, a heady collection of insoluble problems. We can start with the classic examples of poverty, sickness, and death. Or skip to a modern cluster of what has kept Israel and Palestine from making peace, a flood of poor migrants from misery in Africa
Shake- up in Israel promises much posturing Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–It would be prime material for a stand up comedian if it was not the reality that could do us all a lot of harm. The current triumvirate dealing with three interdependent national entities, with more than the average capacity to affect wider catastrophes, have all been operating as political caricatures, making
Abbas, Netanyahu, Obama all slip in popular polls Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There is an old American saying that the country is safest when Congress in on vacation. It may have been spoken in America, but it applies to all western democracies. Politics is the essence of civilization when viewed as the most acceptable way of settling disputes, first by arguing and then
Emotional proposals may signal elections coming Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Overlapping events in Jerusalem and Ferguson, Missouri make it timely to consider one of the most sensitive of policy issues in both Israel and the United States, with emerging similarities in European countries that are no longer homogeneous ethnically. Even the label “managing minorities” will be viewed by some as disparaging, arrogant,
How Israel, U.S. ‘manage’ minority problems Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Currently Israeli politicians are wrapping themselves around a high intensity bit of meaninglessness, which is also dangerous, about the country’s self definition of being a Jewish state. The issue was settled 60 years ago when the founders left dangling in the Declaration of Independence the wonderful sounding ideals of being
‘Jewish state’ bill likely to go nowhere Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The more we know about politics, the less we should try to explain anything, or propose how to solve problems that have proven to be insoluble. What limits us is the great variety of influences on what happens next. That makes politics and policymaking a crap shoot. It’s not only the economy,
Progress comes in increments, not grand schemes Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The killing by two brothers of four Jews praying at a synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem–as well as a Druze police officer who came to their defense–has brought forth wide condemnation. But it has been mixed with support for the carnage. A Palestinian member of the Jordanian parliament
How can Israel deter Arab violence and terror? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East