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 –Again Israel was front and center on the web site of the New York Times, along with a picture and a headline: “Israel Plans 1,000 Housing Units in East Jerusalem.” Read the article. The content is more modest by far than the headline or the prominent placement. It reports that the area […]
New York Times headline overplays Jerusalem construction story Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Living alongside the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya has its moments. Items from the weekend’s news: Israelis accompanying an Australian tourist made a wrong turn into the neighborhood, and narrowly escaped a lynching. In another incident, neighborhood folks stoned an ambulance that entered the area to tend a resident who had been injured
Life on the boundary of a Jewish neighborhood and an Arab one Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — We have had worse days. The not so friendly United Nations published its Human Development Index, ranking Israel number 15 among 169 countries. Norway is number 1 and the United States number 4. Israel scores higher than such decent places as Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Austria, and the United
Israel may be in for a period of international calm Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– The coverage of the mid-term election provokes me once again to think that Americans are mad. Already my American friends are reaching for the delete or the reply button. The madness appears in the weight of the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin, plus the intensity against the president’s efforts for economic
Chutzpah: U.S. electorate thinking its representatives know how to run the world Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–On rare occasions it may be appropriate to assert that “everybody is crazy but us.” The risks are considerable. Asylums are crowded with individuals who say the same. Not everybody but us is crazy. We have friends who admit that they agree with us. And we suspect (or hope) that others who
How the New York Times and others get it all backwards Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–A cousin is visiting from the Old Country. He is a patriot, proud of America’s accomplishments and sensitive to its pains. He asked to visit Israel’s monument to 9-11. Here in Israel? Oh yes. There was something about a dedication ceremony several months ago. How to find it? Googling found a
Kennedy and 9/11 monuments in Israel are in out-of-the-way places Read More »
Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There is nothing wrong with the article in the New York Times under the headline, “March in Israel Ends in Clashes In Arab Town.” It correctly describes a march of Israel’s extreme religious-nationalist Jewish right, the organizational descendants of Meir Kahane, in the Arab city of Umm El-Fahm. Umm El-Fahm is the
Placement of Israeli news indicator of media’s news judgment Read More »
Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — My concern in political science is to observe, understand, and explain. I do not view myself as a partisan. At times observation can be painful, as when a student in my seminar died in the explosion at the Hebrew University cafeteria, and the girl friend (now wife) of a
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two items are front and center in the Israeli media. One is American and one Israeli. Both are important in their own right, and may spill over to what had been the principal issue of the peace process. Palestinians should be worrying that Americans are concerned with their dirty laundry,
Bad news for Palestinians: Israel and U.S. focused on other matters Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two questions come to mind on reading about the latest release of secret material by WikiLeaks: Will this provide the same push to anti-war activists as the Pentagon Papers in 1971? and will anyone notice that the ugliness associated with the Americans and their allies dwarfs the charges levied against
By Ira Sharkansky Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Is the sky falling? Or only part of that over the Jewish community of the United States? The signs appear in one New York Times article that takes seriously the prospect of a Palestinian state declared unilaterally, with the support of prominent international bodies and maybe even the acquiescence of
Is American Jewish community getting restive over Israel? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Due to the co-existence of Hebrew and secular calendars, Israelis can celebrate events twice. The vast majority operate according to the secular calendar, but events close to a religious holiday tend to be remembered as such. Varda was born on hay b’Tishri, (five days after Rosh Hashana), so
On 15th anniversary of assassination, Rabin’s legacy debated Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–I’ve been urging Kaddish for the idea of the Palestinian state ever since the sound of exploding buses replaced enthusiasm for the Oslo Accords. That puts me against many people who consider themselves right thinking, and perhaps a large majority of those who are leaders of their countries. On the other hand,
What would change if UN recognized Palestine as independent? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — ‘Anybody but Obama’ is a tempting, but risky thought as one approaches a decision about voting. My Israeli and American heads contribute to this column as some call for the upcoming U.S. Midterm elections to be a referendum on Barack Obama. At this point, some of my American friends will