PART 3 of 3: Israel-Trinidad and Tobago Mirrors and Parallels.

Read PART 1 here. Read PART 2 here.

 Trinidad and Tobago gives Israel something it has almost nowhere in the Caribbean and Latin American context: a democratic, English-speaking, pro-American partner with multilateral reach, a Muslim-minority population and its own painful experience with Islamist radicalization, which gives Trinidad and Tobago every reason to view Israeli counterterrorism expertise as exceptionally relevant in this moment. In turn, Israel gives Trinidad something it cannot get from CARICOM, Venezuela, or even the United States directly: world-class technology in security, agriculture, and innovation; diplomatic amplification in Washington through the pro-Israel network; and a model of how a small, resource-limited, multiethnic democracy can build genuine prosperity under existential pressure.

 Trinidad and Tobago gives Israel something it has almost nowhere in the Caribbean and Latin American context: a democratic, English-speaking, pro-American partner with multilateral reach, a Muslim-minority population and its own painful experience with Islamist radicalization, which gives Trinidad and Tobago every reason to view Israeli counterterrorism expertise as exceptionally relevant in this moment. In turn, Israel gives Trinidad something it cannot get from CARICOM, Venezuela, or even the United States directly: world-class technology in security, agriculture, and innovation; diplomatic amplification in Washington through the pro-Israel network; and a model of how a small, resource-limited, multiethnic democracy can build genuine prosperity under existential pressure.

Everything points toward a natural convergence between Israel and Trinidad and Tobago. They are wo small democracies, both facing Islamist-linked security threats, both navigating right-of-center political realignments, both dependent on Trump’s America, both managing multiethnic societies under pressure, both possessing outsized cultural creativity relative to their size: it demonstrates clearly that the foundation for a deeper bilateral relationship between Israel and Trinidad and Tobago is not manufactured. It is organic, it is natural… it is inevitable.

What has prevented the relationship from developing is not incompatibility; rather inertia, geographic distance, and the absence of institutional champions willing to build the connective tissue. It would take deeper analysis and braver steps by both governments to create the relationship needed which would only benefit both societies.

The area where collaboration would bring the biggest and most immediate benefit would be in the area of security, especially to properly confront Trinidad and Tobago’s documented Islamist radicalization problem (remember, it has the highest per-capita ISIS foreign fighter rate in the Americas, gang networks with jihadist nomenclature and ideology, and has has repeatedly struggled to develop effective counterterrorism and deradicalization frameworks). Israel has arguably the world’s most sophisticated counterterrorism doctrine,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)