From 1977 to 1981, Holbrooke served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, the period when the United States established full diplomatic relations with China. After a stint on Wall Street, he was appointed ambassador to Germany by President Clinton in 1993. A year later, he became assistant secretary of state for European affairs, the position he used to broker the Bosnian peace accord in the fall of 1995. Known as brilliant, blunt and abrasive, some White House sources say Holbrooke would be the ideal diplomat to deal with the Middle East. He is himself a Jew, married to a Jew, knows Israel, knows all the players and comes off one of the most chancy diplomatic missions in Bosnia with great success.
Nobody has any daring anymore.
Jonathan Broder is Washington correspondent for The Jerusalem Report. I am practicing my own politics privately. General Colin Powell, in a radio interview describing his planned involvement, or lack thereof, in the Dole presidential campaign.