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 –We’re somewhere in the middle of the intermediate level of warfare routines well known to Israelis. We have been through Stage one: occasional violence directed at random against Israeli targets, civilians or soldiers Stage two: increased incidence of that violence Stage three: Break in the Israeli tolerance of inconvenience and occasional […]
What are the stages of a Mideast war? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Listening to Israeli radio and television provides an advanced education in the military and political possibilities being considered in the midst of an operation. Invasion on the ground, more air strikes, increasing probability of civilian casualties as the IAF goes beyond the easy targets and into the neighborhoods where munitions are stored
No real peace–or ceasefire–likely with fragmented Palestinians Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Wednesday was time for another trip to the Galilee. Weather forecast was good. There would be some warm and dry days after early winter rain, and the expectation was for more days of quiet from the south and not much to worry about–for us–from Syria. We had a good drive,
When the news is impossible to tune out Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Bibi isn’t what he sounds like. He is a fascinating mixture of the distasteful and admirable, a politician who remains on top of a contentious and highly competitive heap despite promising much more than he has delivered. What follows is not an endorsement, but an exploration of how his various
Bibi roars like lion yet is timid as a mouse Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Is it better for the Jews in Moscow than in Boston? Just my asking the question will start Grandpa Sharkansky spinning in his grave. I never knew the man, but I know that he left the Czar’s realm in 1880, part of the first wave of Jews spurred on by pogroms and
Reversing fortunes of Jews in Moscow and Boston Read More »
International, Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — When more than 100 million people vote, there is no end of the interpretations that are possible. And when they select one president, more than 450 members of the national legislature, and who knows how many officials of state governments, there is a huge range of possible impacts on public
Disparate lessons to be learned in U.S. election Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — U.S. Presidential election returns suggest more of the same. No doubt about Obama’s victory, in both electoral and popular vote. However, talk about a “mandate” would be exaggerated. Not only is there a small difference in popular vote, and mixed results in House and Senate races, but talk of a mandate
Americans chose more of the same, but not by mandate Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Imagine a dance highly formalized, without emotion, between partners who don’t even like one another, never mind pleasure or lust. That’s what we’ve been seeing the last few days around an interview given by Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazan, a.k.a. President of the Palestine National Authority, but not recognized as such
Abbas interview praised by Israeli left, dismissed by right Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Is Palestine history? That is, have its various leaders lost the opportunity to make their place name into a country? Most likely yes, but it will not disappear soon from agendas of international politics. In other words, the idea will hang on, and provide stimulus to Palestinians and others feeling
Have Palestinians lost opportunity for state of their own? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There is concern here not only for Obama vs Romney next Tuesday, or Netanyahu vs who knows on January 22nd, but also for the more difficult choices facing French Hill in the election for a neighborhood committee (מנהלת) November 22nd. You’ve heard about a storm in a tea cup. This is a
Ultra-Orthodox culture clash factor in neighborhood elections Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The time is ripe for speculation. It is always time to speculate about political this or that, but now it is especially ripe, in both of my countries. Moreover, events we can speculate about in one give us additional reason to speculate about the other. Most pressing as stimuli is the super
Will Hurricane Sandy hurt Obama’s election chances? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Richard Falk is again in the headlines. The professor emeritus of political science, after a long career at Princeton, now the Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories, has called for a boycott of companies that do business with Israeli settlements in the West Bank
Falk’s approach to Israel-Palestine utterly one-sided Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Among the complaints I have received about my columns touching the American election are: Mind your own business. Israel should take care of itself. The United States has done enough for you. You don’t understand American politics. Domestic issues will shape the election, not foreign policy. I have little doubt that
Foreigners should have opinions on U.S. election Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The rawness of democratic politics does not appear in the most thrilling run-up to the final voting, but in the maneuvering at the early stages. Americans see it in presidential primaries, and even lower on the political food chain in jostling for nominations for governor, senator, House of Representatives, and even lower
Israel’s feisty political brew Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East