The United States and Israel since 1948: A "Special Relationship"?

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy privately told Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir: “The United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East, really comparable only to that which it has with Britain over a wide range of world affairs.” Fifteen years later, President Jimmy Carter publicly used the same phrase: “We have a special relationship with Israel. It's absolutely crucial that no one in our country or around the world ever doubt that our number one commitment in the Middle East is to protect the right of Israel to exist, to exist permanently, and to exist in peace.”1 The notion acknowledged by Kennedy and Carter that a special relationship linked Israel and the United States is commonly accepted by both states’ leaders and peoples, by other states’ leaders and peoples, and by many scholars. It is not sufficiently clear, however, what the term “special relationship” means. What characterizes this relationship, what explains it, and when was such a relationship established?