Ira Sharkansky

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — How extreme is Avigdor Lieberman?   Compared to what?    No doubt that Avigdor Lieberman has an image problem with the worthies of the West. He goes beyond the politically correct assertions that the terrorism is not Islam by speaking explicitly about Arab violence, and he throws the charge of […]

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — As a confirmed incrementalist, I’m not a great fan of the conventional occasions for summing up, asking where we are, and where we are going. As an Israeli plugged in to international networks, the obvious times for such stuff come as we approach January 1, or א’ בתשרי , i.e.,

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Choosing among 34 political parties is much simpler than it may first appear. The first step is deciding who you are, and what is important to you. The second step is to avoid wasting time thinking about 20 or so parties beyond the edge of reality. It is easiest for the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Politics is serious business. It is how societies move from disputes about issues large and small to the selection of their leaders, choices between public policy alternatives, and the actual implementation of what government does. Politics is also theater. It provides the platforms for the best and most bizarre actors

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Should Israelis worry about a lack of public support? For some time now we have not been popular with the crowds of Western Europe. Overall sentiment in the United States remains favorable, but not in the liberal wing of the Democratic party. Thomas Friedman writes about the contrast between Israeli

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A considerable portion of the world is being nasty to Israel.   The list of governments inviting the Israeli ambassador in their capital city to the halls of their foreign ministry for a drubbing includes virtually all of the European worthies, along with Australia and Brazil. The list may be

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks is a classic story of a family that opens with a great celebration of wealth and success and proceeds to its downfall. From what we are hearing from reliable sources, that is the model likely to develop after Mahmoud Abbas’ celebrations for achieving Palestinian statehood from the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Scarcely a day after the UN General Assembly voted to name Palestine a state, and Israeli officials said they would not mete out a punishment for their neighbor’s chutzpah, the punishment came. The government approved construction of 3,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and made reference to

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Politics is a trait of advanced civilization. It allows dispute on the way to voting or some other way of deciding. Politics aspires to nonviolent resolutions of disagreements about who should be a leader, or what should be public policy. Politics is not always pretty or admirable. Sometimes it reaches a level

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Palestine is poised to receive recognition as a state by the United Nations General Assembly. Someone has labeled this as its arrival to the level of a “virtual state” without membership in the United Nations or recognition as a state by the two governments most important, i.e., Israel and the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Wars begin with a bang. They may not end with sudden quiet. Sudden quiet is most unlikely when one of the sides is not the disciplined army of a state, but a collection of organizations and gangs, competing with one another, with members intense to show their heroic loyalty to a cause.

 By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel is currently in the verbally explosive situation of a political campaign that began hours, or perhaps minutes, after the end of a week-long military operation. Politicians, media personalities, and just released reservists are all over the map in their expressions. It is not difficult to chart them according to

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALELM — Who won?  It’s too early to be certain. Recent hours have been without attacks on Israel or Israel attacking. Beyond caution about the violence, it is also not easy to ponder the variety of commentary, much of it hyperbolic. With all the reservations that are appropriate, the following points are worthy

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Strenghten Hamas and come close to destroying it. That, as best as a close outsider can determine, is what Israel is trying to accomplish with its bombardments and its negotiations. The problems in analysis and accomplishment should be clear. I’m making these guesses in Jerusalem, within site of the barrier