Summary
The United States special envoy whose July 2013 appointment by Secretary of State John Kerry is the subject of Falk’s post “Reviving the Israel–Palestine Negotiations: The Indyk Appointment”, which Falk calls “revealing and distressing” because every candidate considered was, in his account, a known Israeli partisan (Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, PDF p.60-63).
Details
- As Falk lists his credentials: former ambassador to Israel (from 1995 to 1997 and 2000 to 2001), onetime AIPAC employee, “a British-born, Australian-educated U.S. diplomat with a long list of pro-Israel credentials” (PDF p.61).
- The other candidates considered, as Falk gives them: Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Israel, and Dennis Ross, co-founder in the 1980s with Indyk of the AIPAC-backed Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who handled the 2000 Camp David negotiations for President Clinton (PDF p.61).
- Kerry announced with the appointment that success would depend on the sides’ willingness to make “reasonable compromises”; Falk asks who will decide what is reasonable and holds it would be “criminally negligent” for Palestinians to trust Indyk to understand what is reasonable for all parties (PDF p.61-62).
Related pages
Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, Camp David Summit, 2000, Two-state solution