Suspension of Envoy to Israel Muddies Talks

The unexpected benching of the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, for alleged security violations has complicated the Middle East peace process but isn’t likely to sabotage efforts to negotiate a new agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, experts in Washington and Jerusalem said Saturday.

The State Department suspended Indyk’s security clearances Thursday and ordered him to remain in Washington after the FBI began investigating allegations that Indyk used an unclassified laptop computer on an airplane to prepare classified memos about his meetings with foreign leaders.

Several U.S. officials complained Saturday that Indyk, a veteran diplomat who has served two tours as ambassador in Tel Aviv, is being singled out as a scapegoat for a security lapse that is common among U.S. diplomats and other senior government officials who travel overseas.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement that there is “no indication” that classified material was compromised by Indyk and “no indication of espionage in this matter at this time.”

Boucher said Indyk is “cooperating fully” with the FBI, adding that the probe “will conclude as quickly as possible.”

“This is a question of security procedures that have not been followed,” he said.

Indyk, 49, is apparently the first serving U.S. ambassador to be stripped of government security clearances, according to the State Department. He will be denied access to classified documents and barred from substantive discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and other senior Middle East figures.

Indeed, until the matter is resolved, Indyk cannot even walk through the corridors of the State Department without an official escort. He will be limited to the lobby, the cafeteria and other nonsensitive areas.

The State Department has come under heavy fire since a series of embarrassing security breaches in the last year. In April, a laptop computer carrying top-secret data about arms control vanished from the building. Shortly before, a tiny listening and broadcasting device was found in a conference room wall and traced to a Russian spy.

In May, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she was humiliated by the lapses, and she angrily warned U.S. diplomats around the world that failure to observe security rules was “intolerable and inexcusable.”

A senior U.S. official, who requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing sensitive diplomatic relationships, said Saturday that Indyk is “paying the price for doing things the way the State Department did them for years, and then changed course abruptly under pressure.” He said it is unlikely that Indyk will return to Israel after the probe.

“We’re all sick at what’s happening,” the official added. He described the case as “basically sloppy handling procedures, not being sure things were secured at the end of the day, or using a laptop on a flight home from overseas to write a memorandum.”

Other officials concurred, noting that for busy diplomats, plane trips afford one of the few opportunities for writing memos and reading documents.

State Department officials insisted that Indyk’s suspension will not hinder Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have reached a crucial juncture as negotiators push for a settlement before President Clinton leaves office. But until the investigation is resolved, Indyk will in effect be sidelined from playing a major role.

Traveling with Clinton in California, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said the president endorsed the State Department’s handling of the case and did not believe that Indyk’s suspension will affect U.S. peace efforts.

Indyk has been vital to those efforts until now, partly because he enjoys unusual clout and access in Israel. He has worked to better Arab-Israeli relations in various roles for more than two decades.

After serving as a Middle East expert at the White House, Indyk was named U.S. ambassador to Israel in April 1995 and served for 2 1/2 years. He was sent back to Tel Aviv last year for an unusual second tour after Barak was elected and requested his reappointment.

Barak’s office issued a statement of support for Indyk, saying the U.S. investigation “is an internal American matter that has nothing to do with Israel.”

Nabil Shaath, a senior negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, expressed confidence that Indyk’s absence will not seriously damage ongoing efforts to forge a peace treaty.

“At this stage, we almost are really in the endgame,” Shaath said. “I don’t think it will be that much of a hindrance.”

William B. Quandt, a former National Security Council Middle East expert who is now a professor at the University of Virginia, agreed.

“This is not going to rise or fall on the participation of one individual,” he said. “There are so many other things that could knock it off track that this won’t make a whole lot of difference.”

Friends said Indyk pays little attention to procedural details and rules, especially when he is working on a large project. That might have led to his alleged misuse of classified material on a computer, they said.

Even if that accusation is true, said Abraham Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League and a friend of Indyk, “I would be surprised if there would be any senior official at the State Department who may not be guilty” of a similar breach.

“Why,” he asked, “is Martin being singled out?”

Speaking in Jerusalem, where he has been meeting with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, Foxman described Indyk as the victim of “a changed climate on issues of security in agencies of the government.”

The ambassador’s suspension, he added, “may be the result of some overzealousness in applying rules and regulations. I hope he will be vindicated.”

Indyk has been a target of right-wing Israelis and some right-wing American Jews since he joined the Clinton administration in 1993. Raised in Australia, he became a U.S. citizen barely a week before he joined the National Security Council at the White House.

Indyk worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization, in the early 1980s. Some hard-liners regarded him with mistrust for joining the peace negotiating team headed by U.S. envoy Dennis B. Ross and working toward Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.

At the same time, Indyk was viewed with suspicion by some left-wing American Jews, some left-wing Israeli political leaders and Palestinians because of his previous association with the lobbying group.

Leaders of Jewish organizations in Jerusalem and Washington worried about the fallout from the investigation of the first Jewish U.S. ambassador to Israel. Some said they feared that the probe would raise the specter of the Pollard spy affair.

Jonathan J. Pollard spied on the United States for Israel in the 1980s, turning over vast amounts of highly classified material to his handlers before he was arrested in 1985 and convicted of espionage. The case badly damaged relations between the two allies and strained the working relationship between their military and intelligence services for years.

The investigation of Indyk “could be bad for Israel and bad for Jews in general if it raises this whole dual loyalty issue,” fretted one American Jewish official in Israel, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the situation.

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Drogin reported from Washington and Curtius from Jerusalem.

Times staff writers Norman Kempster and Robin Wright in Washington and Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.