Stumbling into an alliance: John F. Kennedy and Israel

This article examines the evolution of the strategic partnership between the United States and Israel during John F. Kennedy's presidency. It further expands, and applies to a different context, the notion, which was originally developed by the author in his recent book, The Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance: The Jordanian Factor, that this alliance was the unintended consequence of certain processes and developments, which originated outside this relationship but which ultimately came to affect it as a by-product. Whereas The Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance depicts the dynamics of American-Jordanian relations as the source of the emerging American-Israeli rapprochement during the second term of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president, 'Stumbling into an Alliance' views the evolution of American-Egyptian relations during the Kennedy era as the main precipitant, which was responsible for the fact that the strategic ties between Washington and Jerusalem were expanded and consolidated during these thousand days.