Ira Sharkansky

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Opportunism and politics go together. Some call it dirty. Some say that it is the essence of civilization. One way to decide on important issues is the way they are doing it in Syria. On the other side of the border (wherever it is) is the way we do it […]

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Coming only a day apart, the tragedies of Burgas and Aurora point to the different vulnerabilities of Israel and the United States. With all its goods and not-so-goods, one feature of the United States that keeps it from full membership among civilized countries is the rampant freedom of acquiring weapons. The

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The first news about the bombing of a tourist bus in Burgas, a resort in Bulgaria, came at about 7:15 PM on Wednesday. From then on we returned to the routine of the intifada. Piece by piece bits of information about a bus full of young Israelis who arrived on a recent flight.

Editor’s Note: Thích Quảng Đức was the Buddhist monk who set himself afire on June 11, 1963 at a Saigon intersection to draw the world’s attention to the abuses of South Vietnam’s President Ngô Đình Diệm. Self-immolations thereafter became a regular form of protest in South Vietnam. By Ira Sharkansksy JERUSALEM–We are seeing the reality

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –The “West Bank” is a tricky place legally, politically, and semantically. There is one semantic conception that it is everything on the west bank of the Jordan River, all the way to the Mediterranean. More limited and conventional is the notion that it is the area between the Jordan River and

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Some years ago, my friend Malcolm Feeley published The Process is the Punishment. It deals with criminal charges against individuals at the lower end of America’s urban communities, widely viewed as guilty, but who manage to be judged not guilty or to have their cases thrown out of court. The

By Ira Sharkansksy JERUSALEM– Israelis are fortunate to have a large and active diaspora of Jews.   Israelis are also unfortunate in having a large and active diaspora of Jews.   The benefits are well known: a bit of money to top off the much larger sums that we provide for ourselves, political support where

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Lots of politics, brought about by the high intensity squabbles over what to do about the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim), and to some extent the Arabs. Animosity toward the Haredim and a somewhat different concern about Arabs is always present, along with whatever else is happening. Feelings about the Haredim peaked some

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There are some general lessons about politics in the current maneuverings of Israeli politicians around the issues of drafting ultra-Orthodox and Arabs. In Hebrew, the terms rhyme — חרדים וערבים– Haredim and Aravim. The issues differ more than they overlap. Lesson #1 is the distance between politics and policy, or between politics

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The biggest news hereabouts is the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s presidential election. Not so long ago, we saw pictures of the same party’s members clawing at their cages in court rooms while being tried and found guilty for one or another variety of rebellion. The Islamists’ victory

By Ira Sharkansksy JERUSALEM — The blaze that spread through the forest on Mt Carmel in December, 2010 was distinctive among the fires that occur frequently in the dry brush and forests of Israel after the long hot summer. It spread into several villages and destroyed homes, and caused 44 deaths. Most were prison guard