News Release

On the passing of Brookings former Executive Vice President Martin Indyk

July 26, 2024

Brookings President Cecilia Rouse issued the below statement today following the passing of Martin Indyk:

Martin Indyk

The Brookings Institution is profoundly saddened by the passing of Martin Indyk. Martin was a truly brilliant scholar and historian. But perhaps Martin’s greatest accomplishment was his unrelenting pursuit of peace.

Martin once wrote, “The quest for that Holy Grail of Middle East peace never seems to end. It just reinvents itself.” Through numerous reinventions over the last three decades, Martin remained steadfast in his dedication to promoting peace with equal vigor, every time.

During the Clinton administration, Martin served as U.S. ambassador to Israel, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, special assistant to the president, and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Under President Clinton, Martin played a critical role in advancing the implementation of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the historic Israeli-Palestinian agreement to pursue a lasting solution to the enduring conflict, as well as in the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement and Israeli-Syrian negotiations. Under President Obama, Martin served as U.S. special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at the Department of State, working closely with Secretary of State John Kerry to advance peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

To his colleagues at Brookings, Martin was a transformational leader and cherished friend. Martin joined Brookings in September 2001 as a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program. Over the next 17 years, he would go on to serve as the founding director of Brookings’ Center for Middle East Policy, vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program, and later as the Brookings Institution’s executive vice president. He also published numerous commentaries, research reports, and books, including most recently, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, praised in a 2021 New York Times review as “a brilliant account of how the mastery of personal diplomacy can depart from the diplomat’s true mission of peace.”

Especially at this challenging time in the Middle East and around the world, we are all indebted to Martin for having devoted his life to scholarship, public service, and the cause of peace. Martin would often remind his colleagues at the State Department, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Martin was undoubtedly among those peacemakers – one of their very best.

Our thoughts are with Martin’s wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, and his many family and friends.

About Brookings

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