INTERVIEW Israel pulling out of COVID-19 pandemic through vaccination

Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the Embassy of Israel in Seoul, May 24. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Kwon Mee-yoo

• Published Jun 14, 2021 1:54 PM KST
• Updated Jun 15, 2021 9:15 AM KST

By Kwon Mee-yoo

"Korea is a strong brand and a country that is very well-liked in Israel. When people at home hear I am Israel's ambassador to Korea, they think ― correctly ― I have an extremely cool job. Korea is seen in Israel as an Asian tiger, which overcame incredible adversity and pulled itself up by its own 10 fingers and the tenacity and ingenuity of its people," Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor told The Korea Times during an interview at the embassy in central Seoul, May 24.

Despite the long physical distance between the two countries, Israel and Korea share many similarities ― both are trading nations and cannot turn away on happenings in the world. Both are small countries that face significant national security challenges but do not allow these challenges to define them, according to Tor.

"In this perception of Korea, Israelis see themselves as well. We were both established in 1948 and both countries were terribly poor coming out of devastating wars. Unlike your country, we had to fight many more wars afterwards, and it wasn't until the early 80s that the Israeli economy began to take off. The key to Israel's economic flight upwards was high technology, another element quite similar to Korea,” Tor said.

However, Israel and Korea made different choices in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea chose to apply a strong social distancing scheme to suppress the spread of the infectious disease, while Israel took the path to a rapid roll-out of vaccinations, ahead of the rest of the world.

Currently, Israel has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world, with about 57 percent of the population fully vaccinated as of June 9 and its mask requirement for outdoors lifted in April, with plans for it to be dropped for indoors on June 15.

"We weren't in the same situation as Korea, where the society is completely willing to carry out the government directives. Israel is a disciplined country, but not in the same way as Korea. This made it essential that we find a quick path to vaccination," Tor explained.

"It was decided early on by the Prime Minister, Heath Minister and the rest of the Cabinet that Israel would aggressively seek to purchase vaccines and we acted to achieve this at high political level. Also, Israel is a small country with a population of 9.3 million with highly centralized health services. We have four health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that cover the entire country and also have national health insurance, which is highly digitalized. We were willing to share vaccination information and data with the vaccine companies in exchange for signing the deals with us. So in a way Israel became an ideal laboratory for testing vaccine efficacy."

Israel received Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as soon as they became available and began an aggressive vaccination drive in January.

Tor, who was posted to Korea last November, visited Israel in April for Passover and received his vaccination. During this visit, he witnessed how vaccination has changed Israel.

"There was considerable criticism of government in Israel regarding handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Like Korea, Israelis are hypercritical of their government. In the beginning, Israel had a very low infection rate, but towards June last year, we had a steep climb and economic shutdowns became necessary. This caused serious hardship for small- and medium-sized businesses and there was considerable frustration that Israeli government was not doing enough to support them," the ambassador said.

"Once there was a clear direction and strong commitment from the government to make the vaccine drive work and get it moving as quickly as possible, people were much happier. Now we're at the point where Israelis are mostly not wearing masks anymore."

Just like other countries, some Israelis are skeptical about COVID-19 vaccines, but the country is moving quickly toward herd immunity due to its strong policy which made it difficult to avoid vaccination through exclusion from shopping malls and certain social and economic activities.

With its high vaccination rate, Israel is moving to resume tourism by bringing in vaccinated tourists.

"Israel is a very international country and rapid restoration of business travel and tourism is absolutely essential, but we feel the rest of the world is not quite there with us yet. We are making a major effort currently to set up air corridors with countries moving forward on vaccinations," Tor said.

"We want to quickly restore air links and travel with Korea as well, and will be able to do so as Korea's vaccination drive picks up which is definitely happening. Initially we didn't fully understand each other as Israel was vaccinated and Korea was not recognizing a unique vaccinated status. On the other hand, we weren't willing to allow non-quarantined entry by unvaccinated person even if they came from regions of low infection. But we are very quickly getting on the same page, and both governments want to move things forward along similar health regulation lines.”

Country of innovation

Korea is Israel's third-largest Asian trading partner, exporting goods and services worth over $1.5 billion to Israel and importing $890 million worth in 2020.

"Israel and Korea are in a true situation of economic complementarity, and this isn't a cliche. Korea's economy is based on the highest level of technological mass production and global marketing savvy. Israel, on the other hand, is kind of absurdly strong in innovation. Israel is No. 3 Nasdaq hi-tech listings after the U.S. and China, even though we are less than 10 million people. It's hard to explain," the ambassador said.

"Israel is not going to produce a Samsung phone or a KIA vehicle, but we are going to produce the innovation which will enable the Samsung phone to have the best possible camera or provide that vehicle with unique mobility software. Many of the Korean manufacturing companies are understanding that it is wise to establish R&D centers in Israel. This the nature of the Israel-Korea economic synergy."

In May, Korea inked a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel, becoming the first Asian country to do so. Israel was also the first Middle Eastern country for Korea to do so. Ambassador Tor emphasized that the FTA has a deeper meaning than just lowering tariffs.

"First of all, the FTA will abolish tariffs and I think this helps Korea a lot because this will make Korean goods in Israel more competitive. The FTA will also strengthen the legal infrastructure for pursuing contracts and protecting intellectual property," he said.

"But what the FTA is really doing for Israel-Korea relations is sending a very strong political signal that Israel and Korea need to be looking at each other. It tells the Korean business class that the days of the Arab boycott of Israel are over and it's no longer in any way zero-sum game between dealing with the countries of the Arabian Gulf and Israel."

The Israeli ambassador has the ambition of helping to plan a Korean presidential visit to Israel during his term.

"There is a tremendous curiosity about Korea in Israel and a desire for a stronger connection at economic, cultural and ultimately political levels. My job as ambassador is to everything I can to encourage the creation of these deepening ties. In our 60 years of relations, there has not yet been an official visit by a Korean president to Israel and this is an anomaly I will try to help resolve. There are not enough ministerial visits from both sides and both sides are delinquent in my view. It's not that the governments don't recognize the importance of these ties, it's more a matter of out of sight, out of mind. It's my job to get the leaderships of Korea and Israel to look at each other and see that we have to make time for each other at the most senior executive level," he said.