Mr Martin Indyk, the US Ambassador to Israel with uniquely warm relations among both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, is fighting to save his career at the very moment that the Clinton Administration most needs him to help broker a peace deal.
Mr Indyk, who has been serving a second stint as ambassador here precisely because of the faith both Israelis and Palestinians have in his integrity and impartiality, has been stripped of his security clearances, and effectively suspended from duty. He is under FBI investigation in the US, possibly facing criminal charges, and his colleagues and friends are wondering whether he will be able to return as envoy. "I fear for his future here," said Eitan Haber, a close friend of Mr Indyk's who served as the top aide to the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Mr Indyk's apparent crime is to have flouted stringent administration guidelines on the handling of classified documents. While pressing intensively to advance Middle East peace efforts in recent years, he is said to have used an "unclassified" government-owned laptop computer to work on classified material.
In a press statement the ambassador explained: "I regret that my trying to do the best possible job under very difficult conditions has led to the temporary suspension of my security clearances." State Department officials have made clear that there is no suggestion Mr Indyk passed on classified material to unauthorised parties.
But the fact that Mr Indyk is suspected only of breaching internal security guidelines may not prove sufficiently marginal to prevent deep damage to a hitherto spectacular career. Internal security is of immense sensitivity in the US Administration at present, following the disappearance of a laptop containing critical military information in April, investigations into ex-CIA director John Deutch for lax handling of secret documentation and other such episodes.
The Republican majority in Congress is already accusing the administration of being irresponsible on security. The administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on internal security checks, and Mrs. Albright has made clear in the past that any official found to be at fault, no matter how elevated his or her status, could expect to pay a heavy price.
President Bill Clinton and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak both say they believe peace efforts will be unaffected by Mr Indyk's enforced absence. But he is one of the most informed members of the US peace team. In some Arab media, the affair is being presented as a case of spying for Israel. And while Palestinian reporting has been more accurate, several Palestinian officials noted yesterday that Mr Indyk is Jewish and a former pro-Israel lobbyist. Numerous other State Department officials, including Mrs Albright and the top US peace envoy, Dennis Ross, added one Palestinian politician, are Jewish as well.