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 East
By Isaac Yetiv LA JOLLA, California–Years ago we were regaled with a “wardrobe incident” on TV : a female performer “inadvertently” uncovered her breast. Days ago, a similar kind of incident occurred. It was a “mike incident” (microphone kept on while speakers thought it was off) , showing the president of the United States whispering to the president
Obama made cynical anti-missile promise to Medvedev Read More »
USA
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– I’ve believed for a long time that the greatest danger that the Jewish state is currently facing doesn’t come from the outer threat of Iranian nukes but from within, particularly from the continued expansion of the settlements. I thought I saw ample evidence of it when my wife and I spent
Palestinian Jew-hatred a major threat to peace Read More »
Middle East
By David Brin ENCINITAS, California–The brilliance of Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Prince Waleed and their clade really impresses me. Twenty years ago, they were subsidizing Rush Limbaugh and the neoconservatives to spread what’s become the core notion of today’s right. (Though it also crops up on the far-left!) The notion that assertions can trump facts.
Right-wing assertions drive you bonkers? Offer to bet! Read More »
USABy 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 Sharkansky
By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan– As everyone knows, Mike Wallace, son of Friedan Wallik, he of the Old Country, was a mensch. He was also a tough-talking TV reporter and an investigative sleuth who never gave up until he found what he wanted. The Brookline, Massachusetts boy who made good in America, died recently
No proof Coors uttered famous quote about Mike Wallace Read More »
USABy 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, USA
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — As George Zimmerman disappears now into the legal wilderness of white complicity and police reticence, and good people in Tulsa lay down their dead into the crypt of black marginality, this white man wonders how frightful it must still be to a black male in America. Friends
Notwithstanding its black President, U.S. society is still racist Read More »
USABy Peter Huessy WASHINGTON, D.C. — Striking a deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin requires a certain amount of cunning, diplomacy and, more than anything else, a “correlation of forces” on your side. Unfortunately, the United States may not be in the strongest of positions to strike a cooperative deal with Russia on missile defense, and
Russia protects Iran to control oil moving through central Asia Read More »
InternationalBy 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 Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Even to my untrained eye and deaf ear Gunther Grass’ poem that has created such a furor in Israel and in Germany isn’t great poetry. It reads even in the original like an old man’s rant in search of attention, even though the author who is a distinguished writer
Yishai overreacts to Grass’s poem Read More »
Middle EastBy 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 East
HEBRON, Israel — While many Israelis fly off to various points around the globe for Passover, those of us who stay home and are fortunate enough to have some time off during the week-long holiday use the time to explore and get to know the country better. One group that’s helping make that happen
Israelis pour into Hebron for Passover Read More »
Jewish Religion, 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, USA