From the Wilderness and Lebanon: An Israeli Soldiers Story of War and Recovery

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. The second, far more difficult one, to recover from his injuries, learn to walk again, and return to life.

Asael Lubotzky was born in Jerusalem in 1983 and grew up in the town of Efrat. He studied at the Hesder Yeshiva in Ma’ale Adumim, before enlisting in the IDF, where he served as platoon commander in the Fifty-First Battalion of the Golani Brigade. Lubotzky led his troops fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, until his severe injury in the Second Lebanon War. Following a lengthy and difficult rehabilitation, he took up studies at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, and today works as a physician at Shaare Zedek Medical Center Jerusalem. In addition, Lubotzky addresses IDF units, as well as groups from Israel and abroad, on the subjects of Zionism, courage, and fortitude. He lives in Jerusalem, is married to Avital, and has three children.

Binding: Paperback
Pages: 206
Release Date: January 1st, 2016

From the Wilderness and Lebanon: An Israeli Soldiers Story of War and Recovery
By: Asael Lubotzky