Touring Poet, Playwright Promote Mideast Peace : Detente: An Israeli and a Palestinian are visiting the Southland as part of a program to show Americans that hope is strong for an end to violence.

They traveled thousands of miles to promote peace among Jews and Arabs, to show Americans by their very presence together that entente between Israeli Jews and Palestinians Arabs was no longer a mere fantasy.

These days, the ever-fragile peace in the Middle East is threatened by extremists in both the Arab and Jewish camps. But Sami Michael, an Israeli novelist and playwright, and Salem Jubran, a Palestinian poet, have been touring U.S. cities for the last month to tell Americans that hope will not be destroyed by terrorist attacks.

After April appearances in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco, Michael and Jubran came to Los Angeles last month on their tour--sponsored by the Israeli foreign ministry--to speak with Jewish and Arab Americans about their fears and frustrations.

They were hosted one evening by Palestinian composer Nabile Azzam, who entertained with traditional Arabic and Hebrew melodies after a discussion led by Jubran, who read some of his poetry in Arabic and English, and Michael, who related his experiences as an Iraqi Jew emigrating to Israel in 1949.

Afterward, a Palestinian woman asked Michael: “History is always written by the victors, and Israel has won every war with us. How do we know that the peace is real this time?”

Michael, a tall, olive-skinned man who bears some resemblance to his Palestinian counterpart, answered solemnly: “Israel has not been the winner, because every time we win a war there is another one. For years we tried to throw the Arabs back into the desert, and the Arabs tried to throw the Jews into the sea. But we have realized that there are no victors in war. That is why I believe we will have peace.”

Michael said of his monthlong tour: “I don’t think that we have solved every problem between Jews and Arabs, but we’ve asked many healthy questions.”

The two have become so close, he said, they sometimes have difficulty telling each other apart. Jubran nodded and said, to rising laughter, “Yes, I am the Arabic version of Sami and he is the Hebrew version of me.”

Azzam followed the dialogue with several Arabic and Hebrew melodies thrummed out on his 10-string oud. The defining moment of the evening came when Azzam played an old Arab standard, “Shati Al-dini,” with his Arab-American guests singing along. As he slowly segued into the Israeli favorite “Hava Nagila,” the Arab Americans stopped abruptly, then joined in the singing with Israelis and Jewish Americans.

The event, co-sponsored by the Israeli Consulate and the L.A.-based Jewish Center for Culture and Creativity, also included an eclectic mix of other Jews and Arabs who are working behind the scenes to promote peace, including Diana Matar-Sufian, who heads the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides emergency medical treatment for diseased or wounded children who are flown to the United States for free.

What became clear during the dialogue with Michael and Jubran was that Jews and Arabs are beginning to listen to one another as never before. This also marks the first time the Israeli foreign ministry has financed a tour for two of the country’s writers, representing Israeli and Palestinian cultures.