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–Sorting out claim and reality is often at the center of the puzzle that an observer of politics must ponder. The puzzle may be especially severe when contending parties or governments are dealing with sensitive issues touched by religion and nationalism. Welcome to this tiny portion of the Middle East. In case […]
Is anyone–on either side–serious about the peace process? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–This morning I walked to the nearby shopping center of Ramat Eshkol. That is one of the neighborhoods created soon after 1967. It is technically over the “Green Line” marking the armistice of 1948, but no one in their right mind would consider handing it over to the Palestinians. Originally its
Ultra-Orthodox a bloc? Not so far as Ashkenazis and Sephardim are concerned Read More »
Ira Sharkansky
(Editor’s Note: San Diego Jewish World columnist Ira Sharkansky also has written a column refuting the Palestinian-spawned atrocity story mentioned below) By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — What happens when the New York Times publishes, with no investigation, an atrocity story about Israel that is not only false but ridiculously so, based on the most obvious
Western media fail to verify atrocity stories from the Palestinians Read More »
Barry Shaw, Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Remember Muhammad al-Durrah? He was the boy in an iconic Palestinian video claiming that his father had not succeeded in sheltering him from the fire directed at him by Israeli soldiers in late September, 2000. Subsequent inquiries established that the video was edited in a way to hide the possibility that the
Palestinians cook up another phony Israeli atrocity story Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The Israel-Palestinian conflict is at least a century old, although it was not described clearly in its present terms before 1948, or perhaps 1967. It has had periods of sporadic violence, organized mayhem, and most recently a campaign of Palestinians and their friends to achieve politically what they could
Prospects for Palestinian state recede–thanks to Palestinians Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — While I do not claim expertise in the history or politics of Great Britain, my impression is that the Munich Agreement of 1938, involving Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Hitler (” . . . peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”) is an icon of shame
In advising Israel, ‘Economist’ learned nothing about dangers of appeasement Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Should we focus on a president who is a convicted rapist, or the capacity of the judiciary to try him in isolation from a hyped media and produce what appears to be a thoroughly argued decision? It took more than an hour for the head judge to read it. The procedure has
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There is more evidence that Israel is not a perfect society. The headline on page 2 of Ha’aretz reports that 44 percent of the country’s Jews agree with the rabbis who urge them not to rent or sell apartments to Arabs. According to details in the story, however, 48 percent
Israeli Jews tell opinions about marrying, renting to Arabs Read More »
Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Mahmoud Abbas has marked the Christmas season by proclaiming once again that he will permit no Israelis in his State of Palestine. In an earlier version he said that he would permit no Jews, but handlers had him revise his comments in a direction thought to be politically correct. The recognition
Abbas: Israelis won’t be welcome in Palestine state Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There has been some unpleasantness close to the border with Gaza. Rocket and mortar attacks have increased, as have Israeli retaliations. Or maybe Israeli retaliations have brought an increase in rocket and mortar attacks. Israeli officials claim the former; Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza claim the latter, perhaps in an
Rocket attack near kindergarten increases pressure for retalliation Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The headline is upbeat: “Palestinian Leader Has 60 Israelis to Lunch.” The picture features Mahmoud Abbas alongside Amram Mitzna, a former head of the Labor Party. Both seem pleased. The article mentions individuals concerned with the Geneva Initiative, “a group of Israeli and Palestinian figures who negotiated an unofficial blueprint
A Palestinian lunch to launch a new Israeli peace party? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Every once in a while something occurs to remind us that we are living in a Jewish country. Currently there are two moderate flaps, and one minor curiosity. Never a major flap that I can recall. Religion is not that important for most Israeli Jews. The qualifier is important. For some, religion is the
Israel has its internal religious controversies Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Jewish ReligionBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — I admit to predispositions. The news about Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay recognizing Palestine reached a brain that spent half its life in the United States, and learned that anything south of the Rio Grande is less than upstanding or reliable. The latest Mexican civil war reinforces the image, even
Latin American recognition of Palestine result of White House mistakes Read More »
Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It is easy to blame Binyamin Netanyahu’s right of center coalition for the failure of the American peace initiative. Examined in isolation, it seems clear that five parties with 61 seats in the 120 member Knesset are standing in the way of that 90 day extension of the building freeze,
Blaming Israeli rightwingers for frozen peace efforts is for the intellectually simple Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East