Ira Sharkansky

By Ira Sharkansky Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Now that the Chilean miners are above ground, Israel’s media and those elsewhere will turn to other items. The drama recalls Josef Stalin’s line that one death is a tragedy, while a million are a statistic. It also makes me think about The Ballad of Ira Hays, one of my […]

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The issue of Israel as a Jewish state is currently at the top of the blah blah agenda, with two issues adding to the noise and creating some confusion. One is the proposal that passed the government (but is some distance from becoming law) requiring new non-Jewish citizens to swear allegiance to

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — While American politics are currently being roiled by Tea Parties, and their capacity to capture Republican Party nominations by individuals who had admitted to an affinity with witchcraft and liked to dress in the uniform of the most reprehensible unit of the Nazi army, Israeli politics are currently being roiled

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Sukkot begins on Wednesday evening. It may not amount to much in America, but it is a major event here. Religious Jews and some not so religious are building a sukkah (hut) in their yards or on their balconies, and the observant are acquiring an etrog (citrus with a bump), palm branch,

By Ira Sharkansky   JERUSALEM — The pressure is building, both on Israel and the Palestinians.  The immediate issue is the freeze on building in the settlements, set to expire in about a week. Various Palestinians have said, time and again, that they would cease the peace talks if there is construction of even one building

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–After doubtful claims of success in Iraq, and clearer failure in Afghanistan, the United States is tackling the problematical task of picking the good guys in Yemen. Maybe not the good guys. Hopefully the best guys, or those who score least bad on the score of unreliability. Or more likely, those who

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The conflict between Israel and Palestine is one of the most prominent of the world’s unsolved problems. The casualties are small in relation to what occurs wherever the United States military is directly involved. It is the location in the land considered holy by contending faiths, and the weight of Arab onlookers

JERUSALEM–Lots of countries do something nutty. That’s  a practice that does not make sense, but has the support of entrenched politicians and much of the public as “the way things are done.” In Germany it is superhighways without speed limits. In the United States it is easy access to firearms. In Britain it is the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — As I was still wondering who I was early this morning, I heard the 6 o’clock news report that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had used his weekly sermon to curse the Palestinians and wish an early death for their leaders. “Abu Mazan and all the other evil ones should perish. May

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– The Ground Zero Mosque as its opponents call it, or Cordoba House according to its promoters, has become a mirror of  politics in the United States and elsewhere, and not always the best of those politics. Bottom feeders in New York see strong opposition as their best road to a nomination.