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–While the big news of the day is the impending start of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, to open with a blessing by Barack Obama, the news that has held Israel in its grip for two weeks is a document purported to influence the selection of the next commander of the IDF. The document became […]
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The issue of the New York City mosque near ground zero has awakened discussion of that big gorilla in the American living room. Despite all the platitudes slung back and forth about religious freedom and the separation of church and state, and the assertion that the problem of terror is not Islam,
Commentary:Ground Zero mosque controversy confronts political correctness Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– Israel and Palestine may be inching, crawling, or sidestepping toward direct, face to face negotiations. We have heard this before. It is a long and contorted road even to the beginning of talks. Neither side appears to be enthusiastic. They are being pushed by the pathetically naive, led by the champion
Commentary: Palestinians, Israelis ever so slowly being pushed by U.S. into direct talks Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Sara Netanyahu is not one of the most well regarded first ladies of the world. She is known for yelling and throwing things at the household help. She has been the target of civil actions for not paying what is required, and–along with her husband–the subject of police inquiries for fiddling with
Commentary: Sara Netanyahu steps up for immigrant children Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel is too small and too poor for the demands that it lays upon itself, and are imposed by the world. My favorite newspaper photo of the day shows a file room at a court house. It came with a story about a plaintiff’s case of medical malpractice that failed
Israel's idealism often overwhelms its governmental delivery system Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish appeared on a prime time Israeli news program, speaking in fluent Hebrew, representing the possibility that there might, after all, be a Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Abuelaish (or Abu al-Aish) is the physician who held appointments in both Gazan and Israeli hospitals, and lost three of his eight
Commentary: A conciliatory Gazan voice emerges Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Some basic definitions useful for living in civilized societies and on their fringe: A scapegoat is an individual or group blamed for faults properly due to some other individual or group. Scapegoating is a way to pass on responsibilities for offenses real or imaginary. A minority is often chosen as a scapegoat,
Commentary: Scapegoating versus politics in the Middle East Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Two items came to my mailbox this morning. One is another demand from a well-intentioned innocent in Olympia that I butt out of the issue about the Food Coop’s boycott of Israel. This friend is a political maven who seems to be operating according to the Introduction to Political Science he
Commentary: American 'liberals' supporting Palestine miss the point Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–It is not easy to make peace in this region. Currently those who aspire to a breakthrough depend on Mahmoud Abbas and Benyamin Netanyahu. Neither of them inspires a great deal of confidence, given their histories. Moreover, both are politicians, dependent on pressures and constraints from local and wider constituencies. As we
Commentary: As peace talks loom, Arab rejectionists fire their missiles Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Anti-Semitism is ancient, although the term itself appears only from the 19th century onward. By the latter part of the 20th century, Arabs were ridiculing the charge that they were anti-Semites, on the grounds that they are Semites. Tendentious claims aside, no less a reference than the Oxford English Dictionary defines anti-Semitism
A short history of anti-Semitism and its modern equivalent Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–One of the consequences of Israel’s demonization is the incidence of young people who participate in demonstrations against one or another of what they perceive as the abominations created by the oppressor of Palestine. Revolution and justice are powerful attractions, but they do not always appear together. Justice is elusive, and likely to be
Commentary: Mamas, keep your daughters off the barricades Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–More than two million overseas visitors arrived in Jerusalem during a recent year. The attractions are well maintained places linked to individuals and events featured in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and a functioning Old City enclosed by walls built in ancient times and last reconstructed in the 16th century. The
Jerusalem tourism waxes and wanes with international politics Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The sky is not falling. Today. After a week or so of panic following the encounter with the Turkish flotilla, nastiness from the peaks of the Turkish government, conventional censures from the United Nations and NGOs, and shrill comments of “We told you so” from J Street types, more conventional economics and
Commentary: Despite 'crises,' Israeli life remains on even keel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Currently the most pressing religious war in these surroundings is not between Jews and Muslims or Christians, but among the Jews. As is typical of this recurring conflict, the weapons involved are not explosives. This round of conflict has not escalated beyond nastiness and disinformation. But those are sufficient to heat
Commentary: Reason for Israel's enemies to rejoice: Jews are fighting each other Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA