Dr. Bella Barda-Bareket notes that Taiwan is far more than a geopolitical flashpoint between Beijing and Washington—it is the beating heart of the modern digital economy.

A blow to that island would not merely disrupt headlines; it would shut down assembly lines from California to Seoul to Munich. When nearly 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors come from a territory smaller than Israel, the next global conflict may not begin on a battlefield—but in a factory.

Her warning should resonate deeply in Jerusalem. What truly alarms analysts is not Taiwan’s fragility, but the uncomfortable parallel: Israel, too, is far more vital to the world than it admits. Yet Israel still sees itself through the lens of the 1967 or 1973 eras—a small, vulnerable state dependent on outside powers, especially the US. Every American election, even city-level ones, is followed in Israel as if the fate of the Jewish people hangs in the balance.