From the Wilderness and Lebanon: An Israeli Soldier’s Story of War and Recovery by Asael Lubotzky, Translated from the Hebrew by Murray Roston,Toby Press, New Milford, Connecticut; ISBN 978-1-59264-417-9 ©2015, $14.95, p. 188
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California –The Third Platoon of the Golani Brigade, now working near Gaza for training, but normally operating in Northern Israel, remained motionless and silent as Platoon Commander Azael Lubotzky, author of From the Wilderness and Lebanon, chronicled the events of the last two days to them: Israeli forces crossed into the Gaza Strip on June 24, 2006 seizing two Palestinians whom Israel claimed were members of Ḥamas. The following day, Palestinian militants, entering Israel from Gaza through an underground tunnel near kibbutz Kerem Shalom, attacked an outpost of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), resulting in the death of two Israeli soldiers and the wounding of three, including Corporal Gilad Shalit. Two of the militants were also killed. At this time the soldiers did not know that Shalit sustained a broken left hand and a shoulder wound, allowing the militants to take him prisoner and bring him back, through the tunnel system, into Gaza.
In the opening chapters, Lubotzky details his platoon’s participation in the resulting incursions into Gaza: Operations “Oaks of Bashan” and “Final Score,” for the purpose of shutting down rocket launchers firing on Ashkelon, which occurred between late June and mid-July, 2006.
His story, From the Wilderness and Lebanon, reveals the intimate concerns, fear, and sometimes plain bad luck experienced on the battlefield. It is also the story of an Orthodox Jewish soldier’s struggle to cope with the vagaries of war and still continue Orthodox rituals as though he were home.
Describing an Erev Shabbat service in Gaza, for example, Lubotzky wrote, “I took my siddur out of my kitbag, and the men crowded around, attempting to read the small print by the dim light entering through the vehicle’s slits. Those on duty hummed softly as we began to recite the prayers.” Later, near the Lebanese border, he tells us that he returned “to pick up my tefillin that I had left in the synagogue… I decided not to be without them as long as it lay within my power… In fact, my tefillin accompanied me throughout the war, wherever I was, placed in the pocket or back pouch of my flack jacket.”
Just prior to Operation “Final Score,” word came that on July 12, Israeli central command lost contact with a group of soldiers patrolling the Lebanese border when a group of Ḥezbollah terrorists entered Israeli territory near Zair’it. Using both anti-tank weapons and small-arms fire they killed three Israeli soldiers and abducted two, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, bringing them to Lebanon.
By mid-July Lubotzky and his platoon were in Northern Israel preparing for invasion into Lebanon as part of a bloody conflict, which Israel later called the Second Lebanon War and which Lubotzky calls the defining war of his generation. In the first operation, “Steel Web,” a name assigned to scorn Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Ḥezbollah at the time, who said that Israel, by means of terrorist attacks and shelling, “could be conquered and destroyed as easily as a cobweb,” Lubotzky describes the ambush and ensuing battle in which Israel achieved superiority, but at the cost lives, including several of Lubotzky’s friends and a number of IDF officers.
Following Operation “Steel Web,” the platoon moved toward Maḥibab, a village close to the Israeli border, for what turned out to be a successful operation involving urban ambushing. But rest was not in the cards for Lubotzky’s platoon, the next day they received orders to open a route to Wadi A-Saluki, in what turned out to be the final offensive of the war.
Somehow the platoon sensed the enfolding drama, perhaps because they knew that Ḥezbollah soldiers were much better armed and trained than the Palestinians in Gaza. Lubotzky reports that “a small number of soldiers were unwilling to take part in the action, at first offering operational and other reasons; buts as time wore on, I realized that they were paralyzed with dread…. Terror, fear of the unknown dangers ahead, can be devastating for a company in such circumstances. Once it appears, it is likely to grow and spread, for fear is contagious.” Lubotzky, describes how he tried to help his subordinates suppress or overcome their fear.
The platoon continued toward Wadi A-Saluki even though there was disagreement among officers as to whether the mission should begin at night or during the day. Lubotzky lamented that “one of the most difficult decisions for an officer is to determine whom to select for a mission… one cannot ignore the fact that the decision may have profound consequences. I tried to keep the teams cohesive, and to appoint men who were suited to the task…. One squad commander, Itai, who had not participated in the last operation, offered to take my place. I refused. I could not send troops on a mission while I waited behind at the border.”
Little did Asael Lubotzky realize that that decision would have profound consequences for himself. As the tanks in his platoon snaked their way in the direction of Wadi A-Saluki a single anti-tank missile struck his tank, slightly injuring his comrades but causing severe injuries to his legs below his knees. Lubotzky describes the heroic efforts of the Israeli doctors to save his leg and the seven-month rehabilitation process, with its highs and lows, in part three.
On one level, From the Wilderness and Lebanon reads like a diary, giving a rarely told first-hand account of Israeli soldiers in combat, exposing raw nerves, battlefield errors, and fickle commands. Yet, on another, it is an amazing saga of commitment to one’s fellow soldiers and cherished country, of individual bravery, and triumph of the will. From the Wilderness and Lebanon is an excellent saga—a story filled with smiles and tears, as Lubotzky, now a practicing physician in Jerusalem, literally takes the reader into battle with Ḥezbollah and with himself.
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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and a fiction book, Reclaiming the Messiah. The author can be reached via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter-writer’s first and last name and his/her city and state of residence. (City and country if outside the U.S.)