Martin Indyk, former US diplomat and author who devoted career to Middle East peace, dies at 73

NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an creator and chief at outstanding U.S. assume tanks who devoted years to discovering a path towards peace within the Center East, died Thursday. He was 73.

His spouse, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a cellphone name that he died from problems of esophageal most cancers on the couple’s residence in New Fairfield, Connecticut.

The Council on Overseas Relations, the place Indyk had been a distinguished fellow in U.S. and Center East diplomacy since 2018, known as him a “uncommon, trusted voice inside an in any other case polarized debate on U.S. coverage towards the Center East.”

A local of Australia, Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2001. He was particular envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations throughout former President Barack Obama’s administration, from 2013 to 2014.

When he resigned in 2014 to hitch The Brookings Establishment assume tank in Washington, it had symbolized the newest failed effort by the U.S. to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He continued as Obama’s particular adviser on Mideast peace points.

“Ambassador Indyk has invested many years of his extraordinary profession to the mission of serving to Israelis and Palestinians obtain an enduring peace. It’s the reason for Martin’s profession, and I’m grateful for the knowledge and perception he’s dropped at our collective efforts,” then-Secretary of State John Kerry mentioned on the time, in an announcement.

In a Could 22 social media submit on X, amid the persevering with battle in Gaza, Indyk urged Israelis to “get up,” warning them their authorities “is main you into higher isolation and damage” after a proposed peace deal was rejected. Indyk additionally known as out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June on X, accusing him of taking part in “the martyr in a disaster he manufactured,” after Netanyahu accused the U.S. of withholding weapons that Israel wanted.

“Israel is at battle on 4 fronts: with Hamas in Gaza; with Houthis in Yemen; with Hezbollah in Lebanon; and with Iran overseeing the operations,” Indyk wrote on June 19. “What does Netanyahu do? Assault america primarily based on a lie that he made up! The Speaker and Chief ought to withdraw his invitation to handle Congress till he recants and apologizes.”

Indyk additionally served as particular assistant to former President Invoice Clinton and senior director for Close to East and South Asian affairs on the Nationwide Safety Council from 1993 to 1995. He served as assistant secretary of state for Close to Japanese affairs within the U.S. Division of State from 1997 to 2000.

Apart from serving at Brookings and the Council on Overseas Relations, Indyk labored on the Heart for Center East Coverage and was the founding government director of The Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage. Indyk’s successor on the Washington Institute known as him “a real American success story.”

“A local of Australia, he got here to Washington to have an effect on the making of American Center East Coverage and that he certainly did – as pioneering scholar, insightful analyst and remarkably efficient coverage entrepreneur,” Robert Satloff mentioned. “He was a visionary who not solely based a corporation primarily based on the concept that smart public coverage is rooted in sound analysis, he embodied it.”

Indyk wrote or co-wrote a number of books, together with “Harmless Overseas: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy within the Center East” and “Grasp of the Recreation: Henry Kissinger and the Artwork of Center East Diplomacy,” which was revealed in 2021.