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 — For an American used to Memorial Day as a time for mega-store sales and picnics, the Israeli equivalent requires a significant reformatting of expectations. The official number of those who died while serving in one or another security function or as a result of terror is close to 23,000, with […]
Controversies surround Israel’s secular holidays Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Reading news reports can be like reading tea leaves. The combination of different items may mean more than any one of them says explicitly. Yet it is more art than craft. Conclusions may be sounder than received from a seer, but are less than certain. Currently my computer screen is
U.S. reactions to North Korea inform Israel’s decisions about Iran Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Egyptian authorities have cancelled the agreement to supply gas to Israel, which hasn’t been flowing in any event due to repeated sabotage of the pipeline running through the northern Sinai. Various Israeli politicians have expressed the view that this is one more indication of worsening relations between the countries. One
Egypt cancels its agreement to deliver oil to Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky
By Ira Sharkansky KIBBUTZ AMIAD, Israel–Our apartment in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood is about 810 meters above sea level. We began our trip to the Galilee by driving to the tunnel under Mt Scopus, and then through the Judean Desert to the Jordan Valley. At the junction to the road north we were 300 meters below
Sightseeing through the Galilee Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel and the United States are at another hiccup, or maybe something more. Catherine Ashton, serving as the European Union’s foreign minister and the chair of a meeting in Istanbul between Iran and representatives of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and China, is upbeat after the first
Tension increases between U.S. and Israel over Iran Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Only a 15-minute walk from our home in French Hill is Mt Scopus. That is the site of the Social Science Faculty and several other units of the Hebrew University. A half-hour walk around the perimeter of Mt Scopus–outside the campus–is a good way to spend a cool morning.
A walking tour of Jerusalem with Ira Sharkansky Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Wednesday morning, a day before Kofi Annan’s cease fire was scheduled to reach its final implementation in Syria, and a day after Syrian forces were supposed to withdraw from major population centers, I read on BBC’s Internet site that “Kofi Annan, says he has received assurances from Damascus that it
Chronicle of a Syrian ‘cease fire’ Read More »
International, Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –My column on Jonathan Pollard has produced a larger number and more varied responses than is usual. Most support his release. Several accuse me of being hard hearted and distorting the record. One doubts the wisdom of relying on Wikipedia. One from a Jewish friend of long standing reports that there had
Pollard column produces flurry of letters pro and con Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Jonathan Pollard has returned to Israeli headlines, first with his hospitalization, then the appearance of Esther (who he married after being incarcerated) before President Peres, Peres’ appeal to President Obama to release him due to his long imprisonment and ill health, and an announcement from Washington that the President does
The pros and cons for Jonathan Pollard’s release from prison Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It is hard to know if this is a time to cry, laugh, or more simply to recognize the intractable nature of Israel’s problems in the Middle East. I’m not about to go back to Fall River, and certainly not to my grandparents’ home town of Bialystok. I’ve gotten used
Iran and Palestine follow ‘no-negotiation’ strategies Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– There are some disturbing elements and some that are optimistic in a Washington Post article about expanded US intelligence activities with respect to Iran. As is the nature of reports about these most secret of things, the optimism may come from some of the fluff added by unattributable sources, or by
U.S. apparently believes Iran can but won’t make N-bomb Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A recent poll about American Jews’ political inclinations raises once again the issue of how the two largest Jewish communities are developing, each in its own way. Figures are not entirely reliable, especially outside of Israel, but one reasonable compilation shows that the American and Israeli communities comprise about two
Many differences emerge between Israeli and American Jews Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Among the knottiest of problems Israelis have to deal with are the aspirations of Jews to move into areas thickly settled by hostile Arabs. The issue is not the simple one of most settlements in the West Bank or the established post-1967 neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Think what you will about
The fight over Machpelah and others to come Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Among the things I remember from my history lessons in Fall River is that the British forces employed Hessian mercenaries against the American patriots. Both “mercenary” and “Hessian” had a nasty tone in the textbooks and class discussions. I wonder if those lessons remain in place, and if they are coupled
A cautionary note about government subcontractors Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA