Salon
Online magazine, February 13, 1997
Jewish Numbers Grow at the State Department
By Jonathan Broder
WASHINGTON - Following the recent revelations
about Madeleine Albright's Jewish roots, the new U.S. Secretary of
State faces a new conundrum: All her top candidates for a slew of
senior positions in the State Department are Jewish and male.
A
number of foreign policy experts have been quick to note the
exquisiteness of the irony. "It suggests that we've come a long way
in this country from the days when the foreign service was reserved
for a very WASPy elite," says former National Security Council Middle
East advisor Richard Haass, who now directs foreign policy
studies at the Brookings Institution.
But it also poses problems for Albright. If all the Jewish
candidates are appointed, Albright could draw fire from other
minorities and women, not to mention proArab critics of Washington's
Mideast policy and antiSemites of various stripes.
"I'm sure this will feed all the black helicopter kooks who think
all this is a Jewish conspiracy," said one Jewish foreign policy
analyst who asked not to be identified. Albright already has promoted
two Jewish appointees to senior positions: Special Middle East
coordinator Dennis Ross is now Albright's senior counselor, a
position that extends his troubleshooting responsibilities well
beyond the Middle East and gives him an office on the State
Department's prestigious seventh floor. Meanwhile, the position of
undersecretary of State for economic affairs has gone to Stuart
Eizenstadt, previously ambassador to the European Community and
the administration's point man on determining the extent of Jewish
assets in Swiss banks.
And for the first time in the State Department's 208-year history,
Jews lead the list of contenders for the six regional assistant
secretary posts. According to well informed sources, they are:
Mark Grossman, currently U.S. ambassador to Turkey, for
assistant secretary for European affairs; Princeton Lyman,
currently the assistant secretary of State for international
organizations, and former Rep. Howard Wolpe of Michigan, for
assistant secretary for African affairs; Stanley Roth, an aide
to former Rep. Steven Solarz of New York and a former staffer
on the National Security Council, for assistant secretary for Asian
affairs; Karl Indefurth, a former ABC News correspondent who
served as Albright's deputy at the United Nations, for assistant
secretary for South Asia; Jeff Davidow, assistant secretary of
State for Latin American affairs, who is expected to stay on at his
post; Martin Indyk, currently U.S. ambassador to Israel, for
assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs. Having chosen
(non-Jewish) diplomatic veterans Strobe Talbott and Thomas
Pickering as her No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, Albright may come
under fire in diversity conscious Washington for such a heavily
Jewish and allmale lineup. Her biggest challenge, however, is likely
to come with Indyk, who worked for AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and
then headed the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy
before joining the administration.
"The Near East bureau always has prided itself in having career
professionals at the helm," says Robert Kaplan, whose book,
"The Arabists," examines the State Department's stewardship of Middle
East policy. Indyk, appointed by President Clinton as his
Middle East advisor in 1993 and then as ambassador to Israel, "is a
political candidate," says Kaplan. "In some circles," he adds,
"there's a lot of resentment that people like Ross, (his Jewish
deputy Aaron) Miller, and Indyk got so powerful in Near
East affairs." Such resentment may ultimately scotch Indyk's chances
at the post which could go instead to Ned Walker, a former
deputy to Albright at the United Nations and now U.S. ambassador to
Egypt, or Chris Ross, U.S ambassador to Syria. Both of them are
Arabists.
If Middle Eastern politics end up getting in Indyk's way, gender
politics could decide who gets the position as undersecretary of
State for management. Two male candidates are vying for the job, but
Albright is said to want to fill the slot with a woman. Her top
candidate: an assistant Interior secretary for policy and management
named Bonnie Cohen. Albright's newly uncovered Jewish past and
the prospect of so many Jews entering the State Department has
already occasioned some mordant humor in foreign policy circles. For
example:
Q: Why did Pamela Harriman have a stroke? A
Someone leaned over at a party and told her Madeleine Albright was
Jewish.
Responding to concerns that there may be too many Jews at the
State Department, one foreign policy analyst said: "What's there to
worry about? After all, they're all Reform anyway."
Jonathan Broder is Salon's Washington correspondent. He
also writes for the Jerusalem Report and is a senior editor for the
weekend edition of "All Things Considered."
