Current:Home > NewsMartin Indyk, former U.S. diplomat and author who devoted career to Middle East peace, dies at 73 -Mastery Money Tools
Martin Indyk, former U.S. diplomat and author who devoted career to Middle East peace, dies at 73
View
Date:2025-04-19 19:49:27
NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an author and leader at prominent U.S. think tanks who devoted years to finding a path toward peace in the Middle East, died Thursday. He was 73.
His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a phone call that he died from complications of esophageal cancer at the couple’s home in New Fairfield, Connecticut.
The Council on Foreign Relations, where Indyk had been a distinguished fellow in U.S. and Middle East diplomacy since 2018, called him a “rare, trusted voice within an otherwise polarized debate on U.S. policy toward the Middle East.”
A native of Australia, Indyk served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2001. He was special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during former President Barack Obama’s administration, from 2013 to 2014.
When he resigned in 2014 to join The Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, it had symbolized the latest failed effort by the U.S. to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He continued as Obama’s special adviser on Mideast peace issues.
“Ambassador Indyk has invested decades of his extraordinary career to the mission of helping Israelis and Palestinians achieve a lasting peace. It’s the cause of Martin’s career, and I’m grateful for the wisdom and insight he’s brought to our collective efforts,” then-Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time, in a statement.
In a May 22 social media post on X, amid the continuing war in Gaza, Indyk urged Israelis to “wake up,” warning them their government “is leading you into greater isolation and ruin” after a proposed peace deal was rejected. Indyk also called out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June on X, accusing him of playing “the martyr in a crisis he manufactured,” after Netanyahu accused the U.S. of withholding weapons that Israel needed.
“Israel is at war on four 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? Attack the United States based on a lie that he made up! The Speaker and Leader should withdraw his invitation to address Congress until he recants and apologizes.”
Indyk also served as special assistant to former President Bill Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council from 1993 to 1995. He served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the U.S. Department of State from 1997 to 2000.
Besides serving at Brookings and the Council on Foreign Relations, Indyk worked at the Center for Middle East Policy and was the founding executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Indyk’s successor at the Washington Institute called him “a true American success story.”
“A native of Australia, he came to Washington to have an impact on the making of American Middle East Policy and that he surely did - as pioneering scholar, insightful analyst and remarkably effective policy entrepreneur,” Robert Satloff said. “He was a visionary who not only founded an organization based on the idea that wise public policy is rooted in sound research, he embodied it.”
Indyk wrote or co-wrote multiple books, including “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East” and “Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy,” which was published in 2021.
veryGood! (8717)
Related
- Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
- The economics behind 'quiet quitting' — and what we should call it instead
- Why Queen Camilla's Coronation Crown Is Making Modern History
- Who are the Rumpels? Couple says family members were on private plane that crashed.
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- After being bitten by a rabid fox, a congressman wants cheaper rabies treatments
- How to keep safe from rip currents: Key facts about the fast-moving dangers that kill 100 Americans a year
- Today’s Climate: June 16, 2010
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Princess Charlene and Prince Albert of Monaco Make Rare Appearance At King Charles III's Coronation
Ranking
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- How Kate Middleton Honored Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana at Coronation
- Portland police deny online rumors linking six deaths to serial killer
- HIV crashed her life. She found her way back to joy — and spoke at the U.N. this week
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Poverty and uninsured rates drop, thanks to pandemic-era policies
- The economics behind 'quiet quitting' — and what we should call it instead
- Damaris Phillips Shares the Kitchen Essential She’ll Never Stop Buying and Her Kentucky Derby Must-Haves
Recommendation
Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
Andrew Parker Bowles Supports Ex-wife Queen Camilla at Her and King Charles III's Coronation
Science Teachers Respond to Climate Materials Sent by Heartland Institute
We Can Pull CO2 from Air, But It’s No Silver Bullet for Climate Change, Scientists Warn
Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
2016: California’s ‘Staggering’ Leak Could Spew Methane for Months
Even in California, Oil Drilling Waste May Be Spurring Earthquakes
Mystery client claims hiring detective to spy on Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve is part of American politics