The july 1958 jordanian crisis and the origins of the american–israeli alliance: A new perspective

The literature reviewing the origins of the American–Israeli alliance underscores the role of factors related to “the special relationship paradigm” in establishing the infrastructure of this partnership. However, an analysis of the wealth of primary sources indicates that the central precipitant for its establishment was inherent in a cluster of purely strategic developments that unfolded in the Middle East during the second half of the 1950s, culminating in the Jordanian Crisis of July 1958. In the course of this crisis, Israel emerged as the only regional power prepared to take risks for the sake of deterring Egypt from toppling King Hussein's regime in Jordan. It was this experience and the lessons that American policymakers drew from Israel's behavior in the crisis that provided the main impetus for changing Washington's perceptions of Israel, thus establishing the conceptual basis for the alliance.