Martin Indyk

With few vital American interests still at stake there, the U.S. should finally set aside its grandiose ambitions for the chaotic region. WSJ 2020

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, the Brookings Center in Doha and the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. 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." 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."

He has been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he taught Israeli politics and foreign policy. Indyk has also taught at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, and the Department of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Indyk has published widely on U.S. policy toward the Arab–Israeli peace process, on U.S.–Israeli relations, and on the threats to Middle East stability posed by Iraq and Iran.

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 State Warren Christopher's Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the U.S. Israel Science and Technology Commission.

On July 29, 2013, Indyk was appointed by President Barack Obama as Washington's special Middle East envoy for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas favored his appointment. He resigned from this position June 27, 2014, returning to the Brookings Institution as its vice president and director for foreign policy. In 2018, he left Brookings for the Council on Foreign Relations.

Isi Leibler criticized Indyk in a 2010 Jerusalem Post op-ed, calling him a "anti-Israel apologist." 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." 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." The remarks angered Israeli officials.

Indyk served twice as United States ambassador to Israel and also as Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration. He is known as the framer of the U.S. policy of dual containment in that period, which sought to 'contain' Iraq and Iran. These were viewed as the United States' two most important strategic adversaries at the time. He is the author of Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peacemaking Diplomacy in the Middle East (2009).

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".

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. There was no indication that any classified material had been compromised, and no indication of espionage.

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.

Indyk emigrated to the United States by 1982 and started work with a lobbying group in Washington, DC. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1993. Indyk is a Reform Jew.

In 1982, Indyk began working as a deputy research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington. From 1985 Indyk served eight years as the founding Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research institute specializing in analysis of Middle East policy.

He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1972. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Indyk spent time volunteering in a kibbutz in southern Israel, an experience he has called "a defining moment in my life." 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.

Martin Sean Indyk (born July 1, 1951) is a diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East. In addition to serving in academia and as adviser to political administrations, he was a distinguished fellow in International Diplomacy and later executive vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C from 2001-2018. 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.

Martin Indyk was born in 1951 in London, United Kingdom, to a Jewish family who had immigrated from Poland. 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.