Martin Indyk
Martin S. Indyk is a veteran lobbyist for Israel, the founding director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the current vice president and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.[1] He is also a former director of Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Despite his well known affiliation with the Israel Lobby[2] and his Australian nationality, Bill Clinton appointed him as the first foreign-born US Ambassador to Israel in 1995. The issuance of his US nationality had been expedited for his previous appointment by Clinton in 1993 as Middle East adviser on the National Security Council. [3] Once appointed to public office Indyk ceased being a 'lobbyist', but joined the growing ranks of the Israel-First fifth column in the US. He frequently appears on CNN as a "Middle-East expert".
Contents
Career
Born in the UK to a Jewish family and raised in Australia, Indyk was reportedly granted US nationality in an expedited manner to serve for the Clinton Administration in the early 1990s.[4] Prior to beginning his career in the US, Indyk completed a masters degree at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in International Relations and a PhD in Australia on the role of the United States in solving the Israel-Palestine conflict.[5] Indyk has stated that his interest in protecting Israel's security was enhanced by being a student in Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, at which time he also volunteered in a Kibbutz:
- That was a defining moment for me in terms of my search for identity. I sat up at night listening on my radio to the BBC reports of Henry Kissinger flying in to get the cease-fire and from that moment on I became absolutely obsessed about the idea that I too should play some role in trying to make Israel safe because that would make me safe.[5]
Indyk confounded the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in February 1985 with the wife of AIPAC Chairman Emeritus Lawrence Weinberg (and former president of the Jewish Federation), Barbi Weinberg. At this time Indyk was AIPAC's deputy director of research, serving under Steven RosenCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
- Brookings Institution - Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy[6]
- Saban Center for Middle East Policy - Director[7]
- Washington Institute for Near East Policy - Former Founding Executive Director[8]
Books
- Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (2009), New York, Simon & Schuster
Related Articles
- Chemi Shalev, Could this war produce a Sunni-Israeli alliance?, Haaretz, August 8, 2006.
- PIWP Database compendium of articles about Martin Indyk [1]
Notes
- ↑ Martin S. Indyk, Brookings Institution (accessed 8 September 2010).
- ↑ Grace Halsell, Clinton's Indyk Appointment One of Many From Pro-Israel Think Tank, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1993,(accessed 8 September 2010).
- ↑ Martin S. Indyk, Simon & Schuster (accessed 8 September 2010).
- ↑ Helena Cobban, "Martin Indyk's 'conversion'", 'Just World News' with Helena Cobban, 27 February 2010
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Leadel Interview, "Martin Indyk", Leadel Website, accessed on 10 September 2010
- ↑ Brookings Institute, "Martin Indyk", Brookings Institute Website, accessed on 10 September 2010
- ↑ Council on Foreign Relations, "Martin Indyk", CFR Website, accessed on 10 September 2010
- ↑ Charlie Rose, "Martin Indyk", Charlie Rose Website, accessed on 10 September 2010
