Martin Indyk seems to be a happy camper these days - or at least what one could call "cautiously optimistic."

Martin Indyk
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

This is not merely because his recently released book, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, just came out in Hebrew, in time for Hebrew Book Week. A more likely explanation for his good cheer is that Barack Obama is holding the White House reins. And the new US president is keen on picking up where Indyk's former boss, Bill Clinton, left off, peace-process-wise. Before it exploded, literally and figuratively, in everyone's face, that is. And before George W. Bush took over, with a very different approach to conflict-solving from that of his predecessor.

As someone whose self-stated aim since the Yom Kippur War has been "to devote my life to trying to help Israel achieve security through peacemaking," Indyk - currently director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the DC-based Brookings Institution, and former US ambassador to Israel (from April 1995 to September 1997, and from January 2000 to July 2001) - was anything but pleased with Bush's belief in transforming the Middle East through "regime change and democracy promotion."

This is not to say that the 58-year-old, Australian-born, naturalized American Jew - who also served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council and as a key member of secretary of state Warren Christopher's Middle East peace team - considered Clinton's strategy successful. On the contrary, Indyk not only acknowledges its failures, but says he is still grappling with them on a personal level.

In his book, which he describes as "part memoir, part analysis and part history," Indyk details the complexities involved in American attempts to bridge gaps between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, he expounds on this, explaining what he thinks will be the task of the current cast of characters and the critical role of US diplomacy in the mix.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan's Begin-Sadat Center by saying that demanding of any Arab leader to recognize Israel as a Jewish state aborts the peace process. Given your diplomatic dealings with Mubarak, what do you think about that statement?

It's a pity that this issue has been raised in this way, because of course Israel is the state for the Jewish people. I mean, if it's not that, what is it? In a two-state solution, with one of those states for the Palestinians, what is the other one for?

So, while Israelis are trying to get a clear understanding of what exactly the Arabs are recognizing, the Arabs - whose narrative enables them to accept Israel as a state in general - do not accept the Zionist narrative. They therefore find it very hard to accept that kind of add-on to the requirement that they recognize Israel. They don't accept that Israel was created, on the backs of the Palestinians, as an answer to the problem of the Holocaust - the very narrative that Obama talked about in his speech.

But another way of looking at this has been articulated by [former Ariel Sharon adviser] Dubi [Dov] Weisglass, who argues that it's up to Israel to define itself; it doesn't require others to say that it is a Jewish state. And when Arabs don't use those exact words, it is seen as an indication that they don't accept Israel. Yet Egypt has been at peace with Israel for over 30 years. So, it's really an unfortunate diversion that leads to a cul-de-sac, from which there's no way out for either side. I wish there was a way to put it aside for the time being, and deal with it over centuries. There are practical matters that need immediate attention, particularly the need to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In this context, it's much more important to get the Palestinians to give up the right of return than to say that they accept Israel as a Jewish state.

Netanyahu, too, mentioned the Holocaust in his speech, but pointed out that Israel wasn't born "as an answer" to it, but far earlier. Given the way that radical Islam and the reawakening of classical European anti-Semitism complement one another, do you think that it's enough for Israel to have what you call the "self-confidence" to define itself, and not care how others do?

Israel is both highly self-confident and deeply insecure. It's an ambivalence that is at the heart of the Israeli character, and the product of both Israel's current circumstances and Jewish history. Jewish history breeds a deep insecurity in every Jew. Now, with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad trying to acquire nuclear weapons, it just reinforces the sense that, in every generation, the Jewish people find themselves threatened.

On the other hand, Israel is strong. Regardless of what happens with Iran - and it remains to be seen how the events there will unfold - Israel is the strongest military power in the region. It has a robust economy - one that is surviving the recession far better than that of America. It has a strong alliance with the most important superpower in the world, the United States, and deep and lasting relationships with Europe, Russia, China and India. In other words, Israel has a lot going for it, and this ambivalence between feeling strong and weak at the same time is a problem for Israelis. After serving here, I became convinced that, in order to be a good ambassador in Israel, you need to be a psychiatrist, not a diplomat.

You talk about Israel's ambivalent self-perception, on the one hand, and its "deep and lasting relationships" with countries like Russia and China, on the other. Yet both these countries supply weapons to Iran. When you consider that Obama's position is to engage with the ayatollah-led regime, and now is adopting a hands-off approach to the protesters, isn't Israel more hindered now than ever, in terms of confronting the nuclear threat?

The biggest danger now is that Iran will purchase S-300 air-defense missiles from Russia, which would make an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities much more complicated. But, as I understand it, because of the relationship between Israel and Russia, the Russians are deliberately delaying the delivery of those missiles. This is a very good example of the way in which Israel's relationships today make a difference - especially when you consider that the Russians used to provide arms to Israel's enemies in the Arab world.