‘Few Australians have had such a large impact on the world’

When Martin Indyk was buried in Washington DC on July 30, the coffin was draped with the Star-Spangled Banner – the flag of the United States. Two uniformed US Marines then folded it in crisp military style and presented it to Indyk’s widow. And the American flag was flown at half-mast above Capitol Hill, where the US Senate and House of Representatives are located.

Indyk’s close friends Bruce and Barbara Solomon flew from Sydney to visit him at his US home six weeks ago. He was in a wheelchair and no longer able to take calls.

“We were there for two nights,” Solomon reminisced at a moving memorial event held in Sydney last week for the former American ambassador. “Who rang for him in those two days? Bill and Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Qatari Prime Minister, New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman, White House staff, Israeli and US negotiators working to free the hostages and many others. Some were asking advice, others checking to see how their friend was doing. Martin was still needed. He is still needed today.”

Solomon was the ninth and final speaker at the memorial, hosted by the Lowy Institute, of which Indyk was a founding member. The paeans of praise at the ceremony were extraordinary.

Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd (the message relayed by Member for Wills Peter Khalil MP): “Very few Australians understand the extent to which Martin was revered in the US for his scholarship, his policy leadership and his humanity. He has been one of our finest representatives on the global stage.”

Lowy Institute chair Sir Frank Lowy (relayed by his son and deputy chair Steven Lowy): “Few Australians have had such a large impact on the world.”

Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove: “Few Australians have had a greater impact on the world. His counsel was sought in the highest political circles.”

ABC Television Lateline presenter Tony Jones: “Martin Indyk was the Australian I most admired in the world.”

The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland and educated in Sydney, Indyk served twice as US Ambassador to Israel during the Clinton presidency and subsequently as President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace.

He had relocated to Washington after acquiring a doctorate from the Australian National University and was earmarked for a higher calling when he took a lead role in pivotal Middle East negotiations which included the Camp David and Oslo peace processes.

He was involved in establishing the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and held senior positions at the Brookings Institution and Council on Foreign Relations. More recently, he was a frequent presence in the Biden White House to advise on normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and earlier this year wrote in an article which said that “if the conflict is to be resolved peacefully, the two-state solution is the only idea left standing”.

The Lowy Institute memorial was a telling combination of personal, professional, political and humorous reflections.

Indyk’s sister Shelley Indyk borrowed from her other brother Ivor, who once remarked: “What was a boy from Castlecrag, from immigrant parents, a paternal grandfather who never spoke English, doing in the American White House influencing policy on the Middle East?”

“We all know,” she continued. “He was committed to striving for peace. It was his mission, his world. Sometimes to the detriment of family life and his health. It was a sacrifice he and his family endured.”

Expressing the shock the family felt when Indyk was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, she and Ivor flew to New York to be with him. “Martin was working with Henry Kissinger on his next book. He was enduring chemo at the time and Kissinger was about 90. So it was a race as to who would fall asleep first at lunch.

“Martin recently came to Sydney and shared his insights on what he learned from Kissinger and from his own negotiations. October 7 changed the world stage and Martin’s world changed too. He returned to New York and discovered his cancer had metastasised. He declined rapidly and in July his doctor told him there was no point continuing the treatment. He accepted the news with grace.”

Sir Frank Lowy’s remarks focused on “Martin the man and his parents, Mary and John, who shaped his values. While brilliant, he was also blunt, irreverent, unafraid to speak his mind. His passion for peace shone through. When I wanted to develop the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, he was by my side. He became an ambassador for us at the Council for Foreign Relations in New York and also in Israel.”

Added Steven Lowy: “His immense diplomatic experience brought a lot to the Lowy Institute. A hallmark of each board meeting was Martin’s focus on US politics, the Middle East and Israel. He described the consequences of October 7 as `biblical’.”

Peter Khalil recalled working with Indyk, who was his boss and mentor at the Brookings Institution. “He had an impact on world affairs and an abiding commitment to international stability,” he recalled. “His life’s work reflected these values. He leaves a legacy of peace-building, which remains tragically unfinished.”

Khalil read a statement on behalf of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, applauding Indyk’s “remarkable contribution to diplomacy. Last year we were pleased to recognise his contribution to Australia with his appointment as an honorary Member of the Order of Australia”.

US Consul-General Christine Elder paid tribute to Indyk’s role in establishing a multinational force “as one of the most significant and least recognised initiatives for peace in the Middle East. He excelled in diplomacy and strategy in a way that eclipsed most of us career officers. When the goal of peace is reached, I will think of Martin as being in the front rank.”

High-profile businessman David Gonski recalled that when his family arrived in Sydney 60 years ago, “the Indyk family showed us extraordinary friendship. Martin’s father was an outstanding surgeon and in Martin’s book Innocent Abroad, he acknowledges [his] father as a `healer who taught me the value of integrity and innocence’.

“I became close friends with Martin. When I became a director of the Lowy Institute, his 20-minute presentations were a highlight. No-one could take the complex and make it as simple as he did.”

Delivering a tribute on behalf of his brother, Emeritus Professor Murray Goot, Jewish leader Robert Goot pointed out that what was missing from the litany of tributes to Indyk was “reference to his stint in the Office of National Assessments, set up by the Fraser government to provide assessments on international strategic and economic developments to the prime minister and the National Security Committee”.

Tony Jones, a long-time presenter of Lateline, said “Martin Indyk helped us understand the complexities of the issues. He was an incredible resource for us, one of the world’s best informed. A master of the game of diplomacy. Truly an ambassador for peace.”

Bruce Solomon: “There was good reason to think Martin would have become the first Australian US Secretary of State in a Hillary Clinton administration, if Trump hadn’t defeated her. The world has been robbed of someone precious. I felt a kinship to this precious human. He will always be among the very best of us.

“Growing up in Sydney, our crowd was incredibly successful – judges, geniuses, professors, billionaires - but no-one as accomplished as Martin. How many Australians have had the impact he has had on world events? He was right up there at the centre of power. He was generous and gave credit to Jared Kushner for achieving the Abraham Accords. And he believed the US could make the two-state solution happen.

“He never stopped working at peace, until the end. He wasn’t bitter that his life was cut short; he wanted more time with his grandchildren.”

When Sir Frank Lowy began considering establishing the Lowy Institute think-tank, he instructed Fullilove to meet with “thinkers around the world. Martin was the first person he asked me to interview”, Fullilove said. “Frank told us the Lowy Institute should bring the world to Australia and take Australia to the world. Martin did both.”