(JNS.org) Israel is providing intelligence assistance to Jordan and Egypt in the fight against the Islamic State terror group, a senior Israeli military officer said on April 21. “Egypt fights the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan is terrified by the presence of the Islamic State in Jordan’s cities and towns. And we try to work with them in order to contribute something to their security,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, deputy commander of the IDF, told reporters from Israel’s Foreign Press Association. Golan added that he wouldn’t describe cooperating with Egypt and Jordan “as some sort of reconciliation between the people [of those countries and Israel]. But it is a good starting point and I’m quite optimistic concerning that.” Intelligence information, he said, is “the most important element in the whole system” of fighting off insurgency. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries that have peace treaties with the government of Israel, but as Golan mentioned, those nations’ general populations still harbor hostility towards the Jewish state.