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 — Two items provoke this column. They come from points far apart, and do not have any obvious connection, but they both link up with larger issues provoking angst among Americans, Israelis, and some others. One is the latest pronouncement by Catherine Ashton. She is well known as not the sharpest […]
Election a dilemma for pro-Israel Jewish liberals Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Current politics in the two countries I know best suggest that crowd mentalities are more prevalent than mass enlightenment. Israelis wanting change are attracted by two out-of-office political veterans with criminal records. A poll headlined in Ha’aretz indicates that an as yet uncreated centrist party with Ehud Olmert among its leading names
Herd instincts at work in politics of U.S., Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, Germany– I’m directing this column against my Internet friends and many others who think that Benyamin Netanyahu is an extremist, against Barack Obama who has told a number of people that Netanyahu is a pest, and against analysts who assert that Israel is a marginal issue in the American election.
Netanyahu’s accomplishments deserve some credit Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky BERLIN –While Israel has turned to the politics of election, we have been digging around in the dark roots of Varda’s history. They are deep in Germany. Her father, Erich, was a patriot until his death. He was proud of his father’s service in the German army during World War I (stationed on the
Israelis share painful memories in Berlin Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Travel and FoodBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –This is as close as you’ll see to a mea culpa. Perhaps I misblogged when I let my cynicism about things American get the better of me, and chided the incident in an Eilat hotel where an American went postal, grabbed a gun from a security guard, killed one, barricaded himself
Columnist admits rushing to judgment in Eilat shooting Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — My colleague Shlomo Avineri is one of Israel’s wisest. His academic fields are political philosophy, European and Zionist politics. He had a stint at the peak of policymaking as Director General of the Foreign Ministry, and is a frequent contributor to op-ed pages of Israeli and overseas newspapers. Most
Israel suffers Americans with money… and guns Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansksy JERUSALEM–Thanks to an American cousin I am now up to date on the realities of American politics. If I had any doubts about the Saudi loyalties of that Kenyan-born Muslim in the White House, this clip from a Christian source, relying on the evidence produced by an Israeli Jew, settles all my
The skewed view of the Mideast from the Far Right Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–We can learn something about Israel and Palestine from the speeches at the United Nations by the so-called President of Palestine and the Prime Minister of Israel.. One should note the “so-called” status of the Palestinian, insofar as his term expired in January 2009, and the Palestinians of Gaza recognize someone else
Netanyahu contrasts with Abbas at U.N. Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– Every once in a while, certain themes return to Israel’s headlines. One of them appears in Ehud Barak’s recent call to withdraw settlements from the West Bank, which was the subject of my last couple of columns. Another is the hand-wringing cry against Jews who leave Israel. Yom Kippur is a season
Perspective needed on Jews who leave Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Among the more moderate responses to Ehud Barak’s proposal to withdraw some 30,000 Israelis from the West Bank (i.e, leaving aside those whose response was “absolutely crazy”), is the warning that planning must be better than in the case of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. For the sake of argument,
Palestinian society rejects 2-state solution Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Ehud Barak is featured in the top of the front page headline of Monday’s Israel Hayom, “Barak’s Plan: Withdrawal, maybe one-sided, from Yehuda and Shomron” Inside are the details. It is time to make hard decisions about the West Bank in order to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian State if the
Barak’s withdrawal offer a publicity ploy? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– It’s been three years since Barack Obama’s Cairo speech, 11 years since 9-11 and the onset of efforts to reform Iraq and Afghanistan. If Americans and others still need to learn about the Middle East, they might focus on continuing riots over the Muhammad film (Innocence of Muslims), topped up by
Civilizations clash on many fronts Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Mitt Romney reminds us of a basic political lesson. Politicians should lie. What’s this? An academic with a career in political science at distinguished universities saying that politicians should lie? Yep. If they don’t learn it from me they’d better learn it from someone else. Even when they tell some of
Romney slapped for voicing unspeakable truth Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — From here, it looks like my American friends are facing a choice between Jimmy Carter and Sarah Palin. Barack is Jimmy, nebech in chief with respect to dealing with the important region of the Middle East. Like Jimmy, Barack has a naive hope for democracy among the countries with no
Mideast is not the American Midwest Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA