November 21st, 2014
Two days ago, as Coty and I were leaving ‘Mamila’, near the Old City we met Shlomi, a young ‘cool’ Israeli taxi driver, probably 30 years old, didn’t look very religious. He had a sign in his windshield with his phone number (xxx 827 8120) and a smaller sign saying ‘Lo beShabbat’ which means, ‘this Taxi does not work on Shabbat…’
Knowing that Israeli taxi drivers are talkative, very friendly, and always updated about Israeli politics, I asked him about the military situation in the North: Hizbullah claims to have 20,000 missiles ready to attack; Syria is deploying its forces and of course, Iran is threatening Israel as a response to the US sanctions…
Very relaxed and with a big smile Shlomi said: “Don’t worry, my friend, nothing bad is going to happen..…”. And I said: “Why? Do you know anything about the Israeli army that the press doesn’t know or is not telling us?”
Surprisingly, he asked me: “Do you know who Clint Eastwood is?” I said: “Yes!”
He said: “Have you ever watched a Clint Eastwood movie”. Thinking about a ‘cowboys’ movie, I said: “Yes”.
And then Shlomi said: “Have you ever seen Clint Eastwood dying in the movie? No. Right?. He can’t die because he is the main actor. The whole movie revolves around Clint Eastwood’s character. Without Clint Eastwood, the movie wouldn’t make any sense…. and we, AM ISRAEL -my friend- we are the ‘Clint Eastwood’ of the world’s movie. God, our Almighty movie Director, will never let Clint Eastwood disappear”.
Shlomi, the taxi driver, calmed me down and strengthened my EMUNA, articulating the most amazing philosophical and uplifting argument about the role of the Jewish people I’ve ever heard in my life.
