Grumpy Old Zionist

I just couldn't resist this one...

Anyone familiar with the gaggle of Israel apologists who regularly ply their trade in the letters pages of the corporate press will recall Daniel Lewis of Rushcutters Bay.

Now although Daniel's latest letter - in the Sydney Morning Herald of June 4 - has absolutely nothing to do with Israel, please bear with me and read it anyway:

"I agree with Kim Woo's observation on a lack of manners which resulted in a sandwich being thrown at the PM. But then Kim blames 'the media, especially the shock jocks' for fomenting hatred of the government. Clearly Kim forgets a shoe being hurled at John Howard on national television. I also doubt that your average school student is listening to Alan Jones. I wonder if instead it's that left-wing education policymakers have made it impossible for teachers to discipline students. From drunken teenagers disrespecting police to sandwich-throwing children, the results were predictable. As long as a student can go to a public school with coloured hair, facial piercings and flashy running shoes it is clear who is in charge. It also explains why independent and private schools are so attractive to parents who want their children to grow up well behaved."

Yep, thank God for private schools: no red teachers/policymakers, short-back-and-sides, no nasty piercings, sensible shoes, bums on seats, noses in books...

"A group of about 100 high school students travelling from New York to Atlanta were thrown off an AirTran flight, along with their chaperones, after the pilot and crew lost patience with some kids who wouldn't sit down and put away their cellphones. Seniors from the Yeshiva of Flatbush* in Brooklyn were on the flight about 6 am Monday at LaGuardia Airport. AirTran's parent company, Southwest Airlines, said in a statement that flight attendants asked passengers several times to take their seats and put their mobile devices away. The airline said that when some didn't comply, the captain repeated the request. When that didn't work either, the whole group of students was ordered to disembark for safety reasons, the airline said. The flight was delayed for about 45 minutes while the students filed out of the Boeing 737, which seats about 137 people, leaving the plane mostly empty. Rabbi Seth Linfield, executive director at Yeshiva of Flatbush, said administrators Tuesday were still looking into the disagreement, but he said in a statement that 'preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified'... Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins wouldn't get into details as to why the entire group was kicked out, but said, 'I have no indication that the flight attendants overreacted'. He said the AirTran cabin crew made 'repeated requests' for an unknown number of the students to behave. 'The point at which the captain comes on the PA system and says, 'You all need to sit down' is unusual. The students were on a 3-day trip that was to include a rafting excursion and a visit to to a Six Flags theme park. The students were then put on other flights, but it took 12 hours for some to reach their destination... Some of the students posted pictures and video of their journey on social media sites. At least one sent a barrage of Twitter messages to media organizations, complaining that the way they were being treated was a 'scandal'.**" (A group of about 100 high school kids kicked off flight, David Caruso, AP, 5/6/13)

[*"Since 1927, the Yeshivah of Flatbush has stood at the forefront of American Jewish education and has set the standard of excellence emulated by other academic institutions. It has imbued its students with a thirst for knowledge, a commitment to Zionism..." (From the Yeshivah of Flatbush Mission Statement, flatbush.org); **A future Abe Foxman for sure!]