Published: 28 April 2023
Last updated: 29 July 2024
Martin Indyk was filled with mixed feelings, as he considered the prospects for peace in Israel, a hope that was his life's work.
“After I came back home from my recent visit, I sat down and wrote a memo to my friends, which I titled, Israel is in trouble," the former US ambassador to Israel told The Jewish Independent in an exclusive interview shortly before Israel's 75th anniversary.
The Australian-raised diplomat and foreign policy expert described the secular-religious divide as “profound”. He said he can’t see any obvious solution to the conflict it is causing but that the ongoing demonstrations against the government, which he called a “full-scale civil society revolt”, offered a silver lining about the depth of popular feeling towards preserving Israel’s democracy.
However, on the question of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Indyk was deeply pessimistic, saying that Palestinians “had become ghosts in Israel”. He said a third intifada was looming and may already have started – and “it is going to be horrible for both sides”.
He also offered an incisive analysis of the future relationship between the weakened Palestinian Authority and Hamas, pointing to the situation in Lebanon as a model for how the power dynamic might play out in the Palestinian world.
"We are seeing a deeply consequential confrontation that is dividing the country in a way that I'd never seen before, and weakening it in the face of its adversaries."
Indyk was clearly affected by what he witnessed during his visit to Israel, where he was seen marching with the demonstrators. He described the protests as a “popular uprising” against the Netanyahu government’s judicial reforms.
“It captured my feeling that we are seeing a deeply consequential confrontation that is dividing the country in a way that I'd never seen before and therefore weakening it in the face of its adversaries.
