23 Facts About Martin Indyk

Martin Sean Indyk was an Australian-American diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East.

Martin Indyk served twice as United States Ambassador to Israel and as Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration.

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

Martin Indyk's family moved to Australia, where he was raised, growing up in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag.

Martin Indyk graduated from the University of Sydney in 1972 with a Bachelor of Economics.

Martin Indyk then moved to Israel to take postgraduate courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Martin Indyk returned to graduate school and received a PhD in international relations from the Australian National University in 1977.

Martin Indyk immigrated to the United States in 1982 and started work with a lobbying group in Washington, DC He became a naturalized US citizen in 1993, a week before joining the National Security Council.

Martin Indyk married Jill Collier, with whom he had two children, Sarah and Jacob.

In 1982, Martin Indyk began working as a deputy research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington.

From 1985 Martin 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.

Martin Indyk was an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he taught Israeli politics and foreign policy.

Martin Indyk 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.

Martin Indyk served as special assistant to President Bill Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council.

Martin Indyk was a senior member of Secretary of State Warren Christopher's Middle East peace team and served as the White House representative on the US Israel Science and Technology Commission.

Martin Indyk served two stints as United States Ambassador to Israel, from April 1995 to September 1997, and from January 2000 to July 2001.

Martin Indyk later served on the advisory board for DC based non-profit America Abroad Media.

On 29 July 2013, Martin Indyk took leave from the Brookings Institution and 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.

Martin Indyk resigned from this position June 27,2014, returning to the Brookings Institution as its vice president and director for foreign policy.

Martin Indyk was a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2018 until his death in 2024.

In 2000, Martin Indyk was placed under investigation by the FBI after allegations arose that he had improperly handled sensitive material by using an unclassified laptop computer on an airplane flight to prepare his memos of meetings with foreign leaders.

In 2014, Martin Indyk came under scrutiny when a New York Times investigation revealed that Qatar had made a $14.8 million, four-year donation to the Brookings Institution in order to fund two Brookings initiatives, the Brookings Center in Doha and the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World.

Martin Indyk died from esophageal cancer on 25 July 2024 at his home in New Fairfield, Connecticut; he was 73.