Why Israeli politics is so bad

Because everyone is related. Including this distinguished Genizah scholar. He doesn't seem to have a website with his articles (which have been reduced to less than a trickle in recent years), but these scholars do:
David Assaf
Yehudah Liebes
Chaim Simons (not as well known, and the header of his webpage tells you a lot, but his articles in Sinai are sometimes important)

I list these because they have been gracious enough to provide the public with some of their academic writings in full text. I hope more academics follow suit.

Now I notice that Ben-Sasson is dealing with the tension between politics and study in a lecture at Penn: "Pietism and Politics – Can They Go Together? The Medieval Egyptian Sufi Case"
The answer, presumably, is yes, since the pietistic Maimonides family held control of Egyptian Jewry for several generations.