Martin Sean Indyk (born July 1, 1951) is an American diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East. He was a distinguished fellow in International Diplomacy and later executive vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C from 2001-2018.[1] He took leave from the Brookings Institution to serve as the U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli–Palestinian Negotiations from 2013 to 2014. He is currently a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]
Martin Indyk was born in 1951 in London, United Kingdom, to a Jewish family who had immigrated from Poland.[4] His family moved to Australia, where he was raised, growing up in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag. His older brother is the Australian academic and publisher Ivor Indyk.
Indyk graduated from the University of Sydney in 1972 with a Bachelor of Economics. He then moved to Israel to take postgraduate courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While he was in living in Jerusalem preparing for university courses, the Yom Kippur War broke out, and Indyk spent the rest of the war volunteering on kibbutzAlumim in southern Israel, an experience he has called "a defining moment in my life." He stated he had even considered immigrating to Israel at the time.[5][6] He returned to graduate school and received a PhD in international relations from the Australian National University in 1977. He married Jill Collier, with whom he had two children, Sarah and Jacob. They have divorced.
Indyk immigrated to the United States in 1982 and started work with a lobbying group in Washington, DC. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1993, a week before joining the United States National Security Council.[7] Indyk is a Reform Jew.[4][8]
He served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council. While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the President and the National Security Advisor on Arab–Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran, and South Asia. He was a senior member of Secretary of StateWarren Christopher's Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S. Israel Science and Technology Commission.
He served two stints as United States Ambassador to Israel, from April 1995 to September 1997, and from January 2000 to July 2001. He was the first and so far, the only, foreign-born US ambassador to Israel.
In 2000, Indyk was placed under investigation by the FBI after allegations arose that he improperly handled sensitive material by using an unclassified laptop computer on an airplane flight to prepare his memos of meetings with foreign leaders.[18][19][20] There was no indication that any classified material had been compromised, and no indication of espionage.[21]
Indyk was "apparently ... the first serving U.S. ambassador to be stripped of government security clearance."[21] The Los Angeles Times reported that "veteran diplomats complained that Indyk was being made a scapegoat for the kinds of security lapses that are rather common among envoys who take classified work home from the office."[21] Indyk's clearance was suspended but was reinstated the next month, "for the duration of the current crisis," given "the continuing turmoil in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza [Strip] and for compelling national security reasons."[21]
Criticism
Receiving donations from Qatar
In 2014, Indyk came under scrutiny when a New York Times investigation revealed that wealthy Gulf state of Qatar made a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings Institution, in order to fund two Brookings initiatives,[22] the Brookings Center in Doha and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.[23] The Times investigation found that Brookings was one of more than a dozen influential Washington think tanks and research organizations that "have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors' priorities."[22] A number of scholars interviewed by the Times expressed alarm at the trend, saying that the "donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments."[22]
The revelation of the think tank's choice to accept the payment from Qatar was especially controversial because at the time, Indyk was acting as a peace negotiator between Israel and the Palestinians, and because Qatar funds jihadist groups in the Middle East and is the main financial backer of Hamas, "the mortal enemy of both the State of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party."[24] Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal, who directs Hamas's operations against Israel, is also harbored by Qatar.[22] Indyk defended the arrangement with Qatar, contending that it did not influence the think tank's work and that "to be policy-relevant, we need to engage policy makers."[22] However, the arrangement between Qatar and Brookings caused Israeli government officials to doubt Indyk's impartiality.[25]
Of views on Israel
Indyk's career has "featured two abiding, and at times competing, characteristics: his support for Israel, and his disdain for Israel's West Bank settlement activity."[26] Indyk's views "have irked both Israel and the Palestinians at various times."[26]
Isi Leibler criticized Indyk in a 2010 Jerusalem Post op-ed, calling him a "anti-Israel apologist."[27] In 2014, Ha'aretz reported that "Indyk is being identified in Jerusalem as the anonymous source" in an article by Nahum Barnea of the Yedioth Ahronoth, 'in which unnamed American officials blamed Israel for the failure of the peace talks."[28] The anonymous source in Yediot Acharonot was quoted as saying: "The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they’re also considered a stubborn nation. You're supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation. The occupation threatens Israel's status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state...The Palestinians are tired of the status quo. They will get their state in the end – whether through violence or by turning to international organizations."[28] The remarks angered Israeli officials.[26]
Media appearances
While promoting his book, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy, on 8 January 2009, Indyk engaged in a discussion of Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations with Norman Finkelstein of Democracy Now!. Indyk indicated he felt "sandbagged" by not being informed "that I was going to be in some kind of debate with Norman Finkelstein. I’m not interested in doing that. I’m also not here as a spokesman for Israel".[29]
