"Aref Assaf: An unyielding Arab voice" (Intriguing People, Page A-1, March 24) was indeed compelling, and all rational, peace-loving members of society should welcome anyone willing to have a dialogue with the enemy. It's a wonderful start.

But I am sorry that you didn't ask Assaf two basic questions:

* Does he support a one-state solution to resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict (code words for the eventual destruction of Israel), or does he readily accept a two-state solution, with both peoples living peacefully side by side?

* Why not openly admit that a significant part of Assaf's desperate childhood had nothing at all to do with Israelis, but rather other Arab rulers who cared not for their own people?

The article states that Assaf had a difficult childhood, growing up in poverty in a refugee camp in the West Bank, amid Palestinian and Israeli conflict. Assaf was born in either 1958 or 1959, meaning that he and most of his 16 siblings lived for at least eight years under not the "occupying Israelis," but rather the brutal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. After the 1967 war, Jordan happily allowed Israel to annex the territories; Jordan would no longer have to worry about these homeless, stateless people newly known to the world, through their leader, Yasser Arafat, as Palestinians.

Assaf's answers would speak volumes about his being a moderate voice and someone with whom local Jews could happily engage in dialogue.

Robert Katz

New Milford, March 23