ABSTRACT
In recent years, as political theorists have been talking about the affinity between certain nation states, the almost hackneyed term ‘special relationship’ has entered their vocabulary. That a ‘special relationship,’ exists between the United States and Israel has long been accepted. And the limits of that unique relationship, inherent in the basic disproportion in size between the two countries, will one day be fully examined. A special relationship between a superpower like the United States and a small state like Israel seems incongruous: is one not tempted to assume that the giant partner is bound to behave somewhat condescendingly and patronizingly, if not highhandedly, toward the small?
