Martin Indyk’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Israel continued its smooth sailing this week as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination.
Without comment, the 10 senators present at the committee meeting Tuesday voted to send Indyk to Israel.
If the full Senate confirms Indyk, as it is expected to do as early as Thursday, the Australian born 43-year-old would become the first Jew to serve in the post.
Officials said Indyk could assume his position in the coming weeks.
Indyk, known as a staunch supporter of Israel, worked as a consultant for the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in the mid- 1980s.
He now serves as President Clinton’s National Security Council Adviser on the Middle East. After leaving AIPAC, Indyk, was instrumental in founding the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he worked as the think tank’s founding executive director.
Indyk would succeed Ambassador Edward Djerejian, who resigned last summer after seven months to head a public policy institute at Rice University in Texas.
Indyk’s nomination gained the support of the majority of the pro-Israel community. However, some groups opposed to the peace process, such as Americans for a Safe Israel, sought to derail Indyk’s nomination because he crafted and supported the U.S. policy of offering American forces to serve as monitors on the Golan Heights if Israel and Syria ask for troops as part of a peace agreement.
The issue has become a contentious one on Capital Hill.
Depending on the timing of the Senate’s action, Indyk could still travel with Secretary of State Warren Christopher when Christopher visits the Middle East next week. But State Department officials said that is unlikely.
Christopher plans to travel to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Gaza and could resume shuttle visits to Jerusalem and Damascus if the need arises, a State Department official said.
Christopher’s trip comes as Syria and Israel resumed negotiations in Washington this week, meetings between Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem.
The Washington meetings could lay the groundwork for a breakthrough in the peace talks when Christopher visits Damascus and Jerusalem, officials here said.
Dennis Ross, the State Department’s special Middle East coordinator, participated in the meetings with Rabinovich and Muallem, a State Department official said.
Vice President A1 Gore also plans to visit the region next months on a separate trip. Gore is scheduled to travel to Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Oman Saudi Arabia.
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