NPR’s Jane Arraf displays on a long time of overlaying the Center East : NPR

ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:

We’re now within the second week of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, one nonetheless marked by lethal violence. Earlier this week, a video of Hamas publicly executing eight Palestinian males, accusing them of working with Israel throughout the conflict, was circulating on-line. And on Friday, Israeli forces killed 11 members of a Palestinian household. Gaza civil protection authorities mentioned the household, like many others, have been inspecting the ruins of their house.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Israeli forces fired a tank spherical at their minibus. The Israeli navy mentioned that the household was behind the yellow line the place its troops are positioned.

LIMBONG: That is NPR’s Jane Arraf reporting on Weekend Version this morning. She’s coated the Center East for 30 years.

ARRAF: It is type of bookended by my first expertise overlaying the Center East, which was within the ’90s, after I got here right here as a Reuters reporter. And it was a time when Jordan was secretly discussing a peace take care of Israel, when the Palestinians have been discussing potential peace with Israel.

LIMBONG: At practically each juncture since then, the place peace was mentioned or conflict flared up once more, Jane was someplace within the area, reporting for main retailers like CNN, The New York Instances, Al Jazeera English and, for a number of years, for NPR on tales like these.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

ARRAF: They included two fighters being buried, plus an 11-year-old boy and a hospital orderly.

For hundreds of thousands of Syrians, it is a new starting, lengthy dreamed of throughout the years of killings and arrests and repression.

We have simply landed in Gaza – not very far into Gaza, just some hundred toes past the fence. It is a part of the buffer zone that Israel has created. There may be not one other particular person in sight right here.

LIMBONG: And now, just a little greater than per week into the present ceasefire, she’s watching to see what could be totally different.

ARRAF: And so right here we’re a long time later, and we’re nonetheless speaking about most of the identical points, which simply drives house to me how a lot of a driver of instability this all is, the truth that Palestinians haven’t got a homeland.

LIMBONG: Cautious optimism is the phrase we within the information enterprise have been utilizing to explain individuals’s response to the ceasefire. After I spoke to Jane on Friday, I wished to know, is that how individuals there on the bottom actually really feel? Is that how she actually feels?

ARRAF: Cautious – I imply, definitely cautious. We’re very cautious. Optimism – I wrestle today with the phrase optimism. I was – I swear, I was an optimistic particular person. That is form of taken a beating in the previous few years.

LIMBONG: Yeah, I can think about. I ponder, what’s it wish to cowl a narrative that stretches throughout borders – proper? – ‘trigger – so that you’re based mostly in Amman, Jordan. , what’s occurring now in Gaza form of reverberates all through so many alternative nations. And the way do you type of wrap your head round all of that?

ARRAF: Just about all of the nations I am going to are within the Arab world. They’re linked. And while you journey to those nations – whether or not it is Lebanon or Syria or Iraq – you understand how interconnected they’re. And likewise despite the fact that we’re speaking about historic points that created the nations on this area, it is form of as if it was yesterday.

I used to be in South Lebanon just lately, for example, and I used to be standing on the ruins of a demolished village that overlooks Israel, and it was demolished by the Israeli military after the ceasefire with Lebanon final yr as a result of they need to depopulate these border villages. However from that Lebanese village, you can see into Israel. You could possibly see the a part of Israel that was Palestinian land. In reality, a number of the individuals we interviewed in Lebanon – their households had farmed that land.

You could possibly see into the Golan Heights in Syria. And while you’re in Jordan, for example, now once more, you will get in a taxi and you may go to Damascus for lunch, if you need. It is that shut. I imply, all the things is so interconnected right here that it makes it each simpler and extra sophisticated to determine options to issues.

LIMBONG: After we current the information and replica, we all the time ensure to, like, inform the viewers how shut all the things is. However I used to be simply fiddling round from – like, on Google Maps this morning. I might be like, oh, that’s solely 2 hours away (laughter). , that’s solely – that is…

ARRAF: It is wild…

LIMBONG: Yeah.

ARRAF: …Is not it?

LIMBONG: Yeah. And it’s like – I imply, I suppose that is an absurd query, however, like, is that scary, to be so near all of it?

ARRAF: No, no, it is exhilarating, significantly for those who’re a fan of historical past – proper? – as a result of in all of those locations, you’re in locations which are deeply essential to nearly each main faith – the place figures from the Bible walked, for example, the place a number of the well-known poets from historical past recited poetry within the streets. The whole lot is right here, and it is such an previous civilization in so many locations. I imply, consider Iraq – proper? – the cradle of civilization.

And, you understand, for me, some of the superb issues that even now makes me really feel so fortunate to be a journalist is that I can go to locations that I solely examine after I was a baby, like locations with magical names – like Babylon and Damascus – they usually really exist, proper?

LIMBONG: There is a Babylon in Lengthy Island, however it’s not as…

ARRAF: (Laughter) You even have numerous Lebanons (ph), proper? Aren’t there, like…

LIMBONG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s numerous that, too.

ARRAF: …Dozens of Lebanons?

LIMBONG: Yeah. Violence does do many issues. It attracts consideration. Assuming the ceasefire holds, I think about individuals’s curiosity would possibly drift elsewhere, proper? Right here within the States, we have got a authorities shutdown. , there’s loads of, like, elections developing and all of that. And so I am curious, as individuals proceed the arduous work of determining what occurs subsequent within the area, what are you fearful would possibly get undercovered?

ARRAF: That is one of many pivotal questions – is not it? – that we face as journalists as a result of it is very easy to get individuals’s consideration throughout a conflict. I imply, it is not straightforward to maintain that spotlight, definitely, even when unbelievable issues are occurring. However what I’d hope is that there is a momentum to this. And I feel that, despite the fact that, sure, pursuits will certainly wane, however persons are all the time all for individuals.

, the opposite day in South Lebanon, we have been going alongside one in every of these destroyed villages, and we noticed this man who was dancing on the roof of his destroyed house to actually loud music. There was nobody else round for miles. So we stopped and talked to him, and you understand, his life is form of the broader story of what is occurred in South Lebanon. However the draw is, right here is that this man who, regardless of all the things, is dancing, and there’ll all the time be tales like that, that I feel individuals will all the time be all for as a result of on the finish of the day, persons are all for individuals.

LIMBONG: Having coated this story for a very long time, I feel I am questioning what might go flawed right here.

ARRAF: So many issues might go flawed. We’re now per week into the ceasefire, however all the opposite issues that need to occur aren’t occurring. Does not imply they will not occur – it simply means they don’t seem to be. As an example, famine has been spreading by way of Gaza. Greater than 90% of houses are broken or destroyed. Winter is coming.

Israel has restricted support for months, and as a part of the ceasefire settlement, it has agreed to dramatically enhance support, however it has not given indicators that it is going to do this. It has saved closed one of many most important borders with Gaza that is used for support shipments. It has deregistered main worldwide support organizations.

So one of many issues individuals really want to concentrate on, I feel, and that we have to concentrate on, is, how is that this all going to work? , a ceasefire is great information, and it is a second of virtually euphoria. However then for something to really occur takes a lot work, a lot group, a lot effort, and we’re not but seeing that on the bottom.

LIMBONG: How are you doing?

ARRAF: How am I doing?

LIMBONG: Yeah, how are you doing?

ARRAF: Oh, such a pleasant query – thanks for asking. I feel I am doing like lots of people are doing. , one of many tales I am trying into is psychotherapists and psychiatrists who say they have been seeing a rise in, like, free-floating anxiousness. Clearly, that is not a scientific time period, however it’s principally a rise in anxiousness from all of the horrible issues which were occurring on this planet and the lack to do something about it. And it is actually attention-grabbing to me that that may be a phenomenon.

Now, as journalists, I imply, a part of the explanation we go into journalism – numerous it’s that is form of a method to not do one thing about it, however a method to really feel helpful to clarify what’s occurring, in order that definitely retains me going.

LIMBONG: It is humorous. I requested you the way you are doing, and then you definitely went to a factor a couple of story that you just’re engaged on, which is a really…

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBONG: …Journalism factor to do.

(LAUGHTER)

ARRAF: Ah, sure. Let me simply say, while you ask anybody right here today – and today being the previous two years – how are you? – you immediately understand there is not any reply to that, proper? There is not any brief reply to that as a result of the world has been falling aside, basically. So while you ask individuals, how are you? – lots of people discover it arduous to reply.

LIMBONG: That is NPR’s Jane Arraf. Jane, thanks a lot.

ARRAF: Thanks.

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.