Ira Sharkansky

Ira Sharansky

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

Disposal of Syria’s chemical weapons not a done deal

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Another lesson in public policy comes from what appears to the arrangement with respect to Syria’s chemical weapons. It isn’t a done deal. Yet it may be, in its imperfect way. There are many details to be settled, even before the stage of implementation. Then the hard part, i.e., actually […]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

The quiet before the storm, or the compromise?

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–One of the great miracles of politics is the silence of Israeli ministers and Members of Knesset with respect what is occurring, and might occur, as a result of our northern neighbor being attacked, or not attacked by the United States. Generally, Israeli politicians are like those elsewhere. Maybe more so. Certainly

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Obama’s Syria speech weakens U.S. and its presidency

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Putting the President’s speech alongside the political science classic by Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership is the best demonstration yet that Barack Obama has demonstrated the power of the Peter Principle. He should never have moved beyond the Illinois state legislature, and certainly not beyond one term

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Obama contributes to BDS with his talk of ‘settlements’

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — An internet friend writes that settlements are at the heart of Israel’s sins, and its problems with world public opinion. My friend has been careful to distinguish the different places labeled settlements, but he also falls into the practice of lumping them all into one problem. In this, he accepts

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Obama seen by Mideast commentators as naive, out of touch

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — When President Barack Obama took time out from his Martha’s Vinyard golfing holiday to comment on events in Egypt, he produced an iconic moment of unreality comparable to George W. Bush declaring victory in Iraq from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Obama’s lengthy comments have been summarized with the

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

In a volatile region, just talking is valuable

JERUSALEM — The present stage of discussions between Israelis and Palestinians, is occurring with loud noises of complaint from both parties, with Americans also squawking, more often in one of the Palestinian choruses than in an Israeli chorus. There are multiple sources of noise from all sides. “Moderate” Palestinians criticize Israel for proceeding with the

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East