Ron Fraser's Contempt for "Bright, Attractive" Israeli Waitresses

I do not know why the late Ron Fraser was like this. 

In 2008 PCG's Ron Fraser visited the Holy Land for the first time. While he was there he more than once talked to "bright, attractive waitresses" there who, according to him, had a shocking "degree of contempt" for "the ways of their forefathers."

In this, my first visit to Israel, my eyes and ears have been geared to sounding out the youth in the city of Jerusalem. I had wanted to confirm that which research had already indicated was a growing phenomenon within Israeli society, that the legend of the sabras is no more, at least in terms of Israel’s current generation of youth.

Sadly, my observations have to date confirmed the worst.

On more than one occasion, inquiring of the bright, attractive waitresses who have served us in local restaurants, I have been shocked at the degree of contempt they show for the ways of their forefathers. Young men and women who by day dress in khaki and tote automatic weapons as part of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), by night seemingly throw off any thought of vigilance against their enemy and party on into the wee hours of the morning. Their religion, once a glue that bound the Jewish culture together, is now a compromise between the worship of celebrity and pop culture and some little degree, if any, of condescension to the ways of their parents and grandparents. This is a youth gone soft, just wanting the ongoing war with the Palestinian enemy to go away so they can get on with the good life. (Ron Fraser, Israel's Lost Generation, October 13, 2008.)

If these Israeli waitresses had a supposedly shocking contempt for the way of their elders then Ron Fraser does not think they are "bright." He seems to mean that word to be sarcastic.

And why does he refer to these Israeli waitresses as "attractive"? So what about their looks? They are just female human beings like anyone else. Why does Ron Fraser feel it is necessary to judge their looks and then share his opinion about their looks? It adds nothing to his message.

(Were they wearing makeup? PCG forbids women from wearing makeup saying it is sinful and vain.)

And Ron Fraser thinks little of them and Israeli Jewish youth in general. He thinks they go off on parties in the night and "worship" celebrities and pop culture. He seems to resent them for that. He accuses them of being condescending to "the ways" of elders like him. But he is the one with contempt and condescension in his heart.

One wonders what on Earth he saw or heard in the Holy Land that made him make these terrible generalized, contemptuous and condescending judgments against Israeli Jewish youth on PCG's recruitment website?

Also his claim that the Jewish religion was "once a glue that bound the Jewish culture together" is somewhat misleading. He seems ignorant of the fact that Israeli society used to be far less religious in its early years. It was only with the rise of Likud to power in 1978 that specifically religious political parties began to gain clout among Israeli Jews. That statement exposes his superficial understanding of Israeli society.

This passage is terrible and shows the terrible bitterness that lay in Ron Fraser's heart. The same bitterness that would lead him to insinuate that his own homeland, Australia, "does not deserve to survive" for acting contrary to his opinions. His fellow workers should have done him a favor and rewrote this passage. But they did not and that is an embarrassment of its own.