Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin and her husband Greg Myre have co-written a new book called “This Burning Land” about their time spent working as journalists and starting their family in Jerusalem during the intifada in the early 2000s. She worked for Fox News Channel, he for The New York Times. Their two daughters were born in a Jerusalem hospital in a Jewish neighborhood surrounded by Palestinan ones.
Griffin and Myre, who is now editor at NPR’s “Morning Edition” (interesting considering the recent NPR-FNC row) went on NPR this morning to talk about their new book.
The couple’s second daughter was born in December 2002, shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the time, Israeli officials were gravely concerned that Saddam Hussein might use Scud missiles to attack Israel with chemical weapons.
Advertisement“I was given a certificate at the hospital that was for a gas mask tent for the baby,” Griffin says. She adds, “That took my breath away.”
To keep their children safe, the couple adopted some basic rules. They avoided
cafes, for instance. “You wouldn’t take them to grocery stores,” Griffin says. “You wouldn’t take them to the movie theaters.”
“At 1 p.m., I could be up in Jenin, in the West Bank, interviewing masked gunmen from the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,” Griffin says, “and I’d have to call Greg at 1 and say, ‘Can you pick up the kids from preschool?'”
“Jennifer would travel around routinely with a breast pump and a flak jacket,” Myre says.
“This Burning Land” was released March 29.