From the Wilderness and Lebanon
An Israeli Soldier’s Story of War and Recovery
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Asael Lubotzky was a young IDF commander during the Second Lebanon War. Leading his troops into combat, maneuvering through the deadly urban warfare of Southern Lebanon, Lubotzky was hit by a missile, irreversibly damaging both his legs.
In this harrowing memoir, Lubotzky recounts the story of the two great battles of his life. The first, against Hamas and Hezbollah, when he was forced to contend with the horrors of war, the fears of his soldiers, the loss of his comrades, and the moral dilemmas of the battlefield. And the second, far more difficult one, to recover from his injuries, learn to walk again, and return to life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lubotzky's oddly-truncated memoir recounts his time in the Israeli Army in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War, and his recovery from a serious battlefield injury. The memoir assumes some familiarity with Israel that not all readers will have, and will lose something in translation for general readers. As harrowing as Lubotzky's experiences were, his reflections on them often come off as banal rather than profound ("Suffering an injury can contribute much to a person's character"). He also skirts any consideration of the merits of the war, which was launched after a Hezbollah raid into northern Israel, although it received heavy criticism from the Israeli public. What is left is the earnest and sincere story of a young Army commander: his trials achieving military objectives and fighting an enemy willing to use human shields, then the horrendous injury and his long recovery, both physically and emotionally. Oddly, only in an author's note does Lubotzky reveal that after rehabilitation he completed medical school, now works as a physician, and fathered three children. With little depth or scope, the book will disappoint even some supporters of Israel and admirers of the IDF.
