After my letter to the editor that was published in Sweden's biggest paper, I wrote another article a week ago in hope to publish somewhere. No editor got back to me so far, but if you know of anyone who would be interested to hear my perspective, let me know!
Sacrifice
As a chess champion, I'm thinking about things I learned from the royal game and there is a word in particular that is giving me the chills lately: sacrifice. I started playing chess at the age of four and after getting acquainted with the rules, learned that there is a certain value of each piece and that one has to make decisions of trading accordingly. For example, a pawn's value is one, while the strongest piece is the queen and its worth nine points. In chess, sacrifice is when you give up material - a more valuable piece- to achieve tactical or strategical advantage. From an early age I studied rook and knight sacrifices, long before I learned about the offerings in religious stories and mythologies. One of the biggest joys for me as a little girl, was winning games with a queen sacrifice, meaning I have given up my queen and then checkmated my opponent.
In my teenage years, still living behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary, I started liking the songs of Elton John. There were two songs in particular that are amongst my favorites ever since: Nikita and Sacrifice. "And it's no sacrifice - Just a simple word - It's two hearts living - In two separate worlds." Somehow, every song in this last month, gets a different meaning and context... The horrific murders and other crimes against humanity on October 7th committed by Hamas, broke the hearts of everyone in my new homeland where I live for 28 years now. We feel the enormous pain of more than 1400 families who lost their loved ones, and the nightmare of 240 other families whose children, spouses or grandparents are still being kidnapped in Gaza by terrorists.
Sometimes I ask myself: was it a sacrifice to move from the middle of Europe to the Middle East? The answer is no, this is where I found my partner for life, the man I would have followed to the moon if he asked. Israel is a start-up nation with lot of bright brains and the special vibe and warmness of the people attracts both tourists and Jews from around the world who decide to make it their new home. It is a beautiful tiny country, with very diverse sights of ancient and modern architecture, with lively beaches and the Dead Sea and with magical panorama of mountains in the North and the Negev desert in the South. Its cities are as multicultural as it can be, giving space for all religions, for people of all colors and beliefs and based on a free and open society. Unfortunately, the current war is not the first one that I am part of. Rockets are flying over our towns by the thousands both from Gaza and from Hizballah.
There are certain things that all mothers and fathers have to give up when deciding on parenthood: the hours of sleep or going out at nights and in general adopting to the needs of a newborn baby. That is no sacrifice, because the motive is love. I think when love is the drive being a mom is the best thing that can be. Or when you have a puppy in the house it is almost okay to have the sofa sacrificed. The problem is, when the origin of the idea of a sacrifice comes from fear and hate. The kind that far too many radical Islamist groups are using, by sending brainwashed youngsters for suicidal missions to blow themselves up, to use a knife, a truck or a plane and whatever weapon they can, to make as much destruction as possible. Note, that the terrorist leaders of such sects and their supporters are spreading their hatred from safe bunkers or fancy palaces behind their bodyguards, while robbing their own people from food, basic infrastructures and freedom. And they call themselves "Freedom Fighters". How cynical is that? Or the fact that in the eyes of these monsters, sacrificing children and using them and innocent civilians as human shields is plain tactics.
The Hamas for example, has built their underground headquarters and stations of rockets to fire at Israel, under hospitals, schools and residential homes. The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is fighting a war now that was forced on us on the 7th of October, to ensure that the citizens of the only democratic state in the Middle East, will be able to sleep at night without the frightening thought of being slaughtered like the victims one month ago. Note that the population of Israel is about nine million with roughly 70% being Jewish. The terrorists of these attacks could not care less if their victims were Jewish children in their pajamas, Muslims or Christians, Israelis or people from 35 other countries dancing at a music festival.
So, if you think, all this is far away from Europe or America, I urge you to wake up! Seeing the "peaceful" demonstrations full of hate on the streets around the world, in academics and even at Ivy League Universities is more than alarming. As much as my heart goes also for the children in Gaza, the world has to realize that their enemy is the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Hamas is responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people from the time it was formed in 1987 and especially since they govern the Gaza Strip from 2007.
Unless the moderate and reasonable people around the globe speak up, we are all heading to catastrophe. Influencers of all sorts and especially the teachers and spiritual leaders of all religions should condemn all forms of terror in a clear and loud voice. Otherwise, the West is Next. 9/11 happened once and I think it is naïve to think that it cannot happen again. Imagine a hypothetical scenario of a plane heading to a skyscraper in your country, with the sheer target to kill as many people as possible. Then visualize that together with the terrorists, there are also innocent children on the flight. If you had the choice, would you shoot the plane?
Decision makers should consider sacrificing a bit of their ego, perhaps putting on line some of their income or respected chairs in different positions and stand up for values that supposedly they represent. October 7 started a new page in the history books, with cruelty and evil that we thought was only possible in the past. This is a worldwide war between cultures: on one side there are extremists who spread hate and capable of massacre in the name of evil ideologies. The other side is a moderate, liberal culture that stands for liberty of individuals and peace. You cannot support both at the same time, everyone should choose a side. Sofia Polgar.
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