In understanding the success of IS at recruiting members, it is important not to discount religion—the most obvious reason for its popularity even if, for many Western commentators, this is the last explanation to come to mind. Ayman Ibrahim writes:

IS is quite appealing to some as it serves as the fulfillment of the long-awaited dream of the one unified Muslim umma (community). With the emergence of IS, for the first time in centuries, Muslims from many ethnicities and cultural background can claim to be “one” in Allah’s restored caliphate. They pine for the “golden days” of Islam. . . . This makes IS’s message and call appealing especially to those who have been reading the recent happenings with an eye on the past sacred days of the Muslim prophet. In a recent interview with an IS recruit, Khadija (not her real name) was asked why she joined IS. She said that the recruiter promised, “We are going to properly implement Islam.” In short, the dream of the one unified umma replaces and surpasses every other dream, even the personal and national ones.

Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Trump in the White House. High on their agenda will be Iran, and the next steps following the joint assault on its nuclear facilities, as well as the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza. But there are other equally weighty matters that the two leaders are apt to discuss. Eran Lerman, calling this a White House visit “unlike any before it,” surveys some of those matters, beginning with efforts to improve relations between Israel and the Arab states—above all Saudi Arabia:

[I]t is a safe bet that no White House signing ceremony is in the offing. A much more likely scenario would involve—if the language from Israel on the Palestinian future is sufficiently vague and does not preclude the option of (limited) statehood—a return to the pre-7 October 2023 pattern of economic ventures, open visits at the ministerial level, and a growing degree of discussion and mutual cooperation on regional issues such as Lebanon and Syria.

In fact, writes Lerman, those two countries will also be major conversation topics. The president and the prime minister are likely to broach as well the possible opening of relations between Jerusalem and Damascus, a goal that is

realistic in light of reconstruction needs of this devastated country, all the more destitute once the Assad clan’s main source of income, the massive production and export of [the drug] Captagon, has been cut off. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to see Syria focused on its domestic needs—and as much as possible, free from the powerful grip of Turkey. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration, with its soft spot for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will do its part.