Ira Sharkansky

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Another lesson in public policy comes from what appears to the arrangement with respect to Syria’s chemical weapons. It isn’t a done deal. Yet it may be, in its imperfect way. There are many details to be settled, even before the stage of implementation. Then the hard part, i.e., actually

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–One of the great miracles of politics is the silence of Israeli ministers and Members of Knesset with respect what is occurring, and might occur, as a result of our northern neighbor being attacked, or not attacked by the United States. Generally, Israeli politicians are like those elsewhere. Maybe more so. Certainly

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There are signs of desperation in the Obama-Kerry campaign to obtain support for an attack on Syria from the Congress, the public, and European governments.. Or is it a Kerry-Obama campaign? The Secretary of State has been furthest out in his claims of a moral imperative, and is now conjuring

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The complexities of the US-Russian-Syrian issues are shaping up to be a spectacular lesson for students of public policy. On the one hand there are these considerations. . .  On the other hand are these. . . In the light of these conditions, what should be the policy of the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The dramatic forth and back of Barack Obama on Syria has provoked a great deal of commentary and speculation about what’s next. If words had power, their weight would have already pummeled Assad–or Obama–or both–into the dust. My own concerns are less with the unknown future, than with what the

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Putting the President’s speech alongside the political science classic by Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership is the best demonstration yet that Barack Obama has demonstrated the power of the Peter Principle. He should never have moved beyond the Illinois state legislature, and certainly not beyond one term

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –This is the season when Israelis combine a wish for a good year along with their conventional greetings at work, on the street, or over the telephone. This year it is also an occasion for asking if there will be another war. The answer is almost certainly yes, with the next

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — As of this writing, the betting is that Obama will decide to strike Syria, as punishment for its use of chemical weapons. One can admire the President’s deliberate consideration of what appear to be all the bad options, even while ridiculing him for the bombast which he proclaimed against chemical

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — An internet friend writes that settlements are at the heart of Israel’s sins, and its problems with world public opinion. My friend has been careful to distinguish the different places labeled settlements, but he also falls into the practice of lumping them all into one problem. In this, he accepts

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The latest pictures from the Syrian civil war are especially ugly. More than a thousand civilians in the outskirts of the capital dead from what appears to be poison gas. Uncivilized? More so than the bombardment of civilians that has been going on for a couple of years, with total

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Moshe Arens has gained credit for coining the expression, The Middle East is not the Middle West. It serves to warn westerners, and especially Americans, that culture matters, and that the culture of the Middle East is not like that of the Middle West. This is a good time to

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — When President Barack Obama took time out from his Martha’s Vinyard golfing holiday to comment on events in Egypt, he produced an iconic moment of unreality comparable to George W. Bush declaring victory in Iraq from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Obama’s lengthy comments have been summarized with the

JERUSALEM — The present stage of discussions between Israelis and Palestinians, is occurring with loud noises of complaint from both parties, with Americans also squawking, more often in one of the Palestinian choruses than in an Israeli chorus. There are multiple sources of noise from all sides. “Moderate” Palestinians criticize Israel for proceeding with the