Ira Sharkansky

Ira Sharansky

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

Israel’s firefighting resources prove woefully inadequate

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–While the macro picture widely purveyed is global warming, the micro weathers determine who gets what. Europe is reporting record cold and snow, but it is still summer in this corner of the Middle East. Daily temperatures are ranging above 20 C (high 60s low 70 for Americans out of sync with the rest

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

BDS, though annoying, an improvement over Palestinian violence

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –The latest session of my seminar on public policy was devoted to “Israel in Comparative Perspective.” After noting that Israel is the lone country with a majority of Jews and the western democracy with outlays on security more than twice those (as a proportion of national resources) of the next most

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Outsiders who don’t understand Korea should be similarly modest about Israel

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There is a lesson for the Middle East in the latest incident on the Korean peninsula. The lesson is indirect, and deals more with general principles than the details of what seems to have happened. I begin with the admission that I am a confused outsider on Korean issues. So–with respect to

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

When soap-opera affairs are reminiscent of international relations

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–You want soap opera in real life?  It is far from politically correct to be cynical in the presence of charges about sexual harassment and rape, but who wants politically correct in the presence of these stories? The initial inquiry into a leading candidate for the job of national police chief has

When soap-opera affairs are reminiscent of international relations Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

SHAS is a more moderate party than Westerners perceive

By Ira Sharkansky  JERUSALEM –Among the platitudes being promoted here and elsewhere is that the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party SHAS is one of the extremist elements keeping the Netanyahu government from acting with good sense. The conventional line is that Israel must leave the West Bank to Palestine, in compliance with the views expressed by right

SHAS is a more moderate party than Westerners perceive Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Is 90-day construction freeze agreement unraveling?

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Let’s start with the bad news. For the good news, you’ll have to look elsewhere. A week ago things were looking pretty good. The prime minister reported that the Americans were offering, as an inducement for a 90-day construction freeze in the West Bank, 20 F-35 advanced military planes, free of charge,

Is 90-day construction freeze agreement unraveling? Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Paucity of information on Netanyahu-Clinton agreement fuels rumors, confusion

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– That seven hour meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Secretary of State Clinton in Washington D.C. produced a lot of talk, but less by way of clear documents. There are questions about the promise of 20 advanced military planes, whether the Americans are clear about excluding Jerusalem from the 90-day settlement

Paucity of information on Netanyahu-Clinton agreement fuels rumors, confusion Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

U.S. may provide planes, U.N. support to Israel in return for brief construction freeze

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Prime Minister Netanyahu has recommended that his government accept an American offer to provide advanced military planes worth $3billion without payment, and to support Israel’s position in the United Nations, in exchange for a 90-day extension of the building freeze that will not apply to neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The deal is attractive not

U.S. may provide planes, U.N. support to Israel in return for brief construction freeze Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Only a bland statement emerges from 7-hour Netanyahu-Clinton meeting

By Ira Sharkansky Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–There was a seven-hour meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Secretary of State Clinton. It closed with mutual declarations of commitment to a peace process, fuzzy definitions of what was agreed, and no assignment of blame for the impasse to one side or another. The New York Times reported that

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Obama in Jakarta may have been laying groundwork to acknowledge Mideast peace process failure

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–What can we make of the following? Speaking in Indonesia, alongside the leader of that country, Barack Obama said that the planning of new housing in East Jerusalem was not helpful to the peace process. He went on to say that both sides must take the difficult decisions necessary to produce a

Obama in Jakarta may have been laying groundwork to acknowledge Mideast peace process failure Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Travel and Food