While I personally agree with teaching something other than Java, there is one big advantage of Java you have overlooked-- as the core language is so simple, bugs caused by incorrect use of the language tend to be "shallow" (bugs caused by algorithmic mistakes can still be very complex of course).
An easy example of this is compile-time errors -- the most complex compile time error you can get of Java tends to be nothing more than "mismatched bracket" or "incorrect function call", whereas even fairly simple Haskell code can produce very complex error messages, and ghci (for example) tends to make things worse rather than better.
Java isn't perfect and has been getting more complicated, boxing & generics for example, but still is not close to the pain one can create in a handfu of characters in Haskell (of course, C++ has the same problem, for different reasons).
Personally, I see Haskell as the C++ of functional language, and therefore would prefer not to teach either Haskell or C++ as a first language.
An easy example of this is compile-time errors -- the most complex compile time error you can get of Java tends to be nothing more than "mismatched bracket" or "incorrect function call", whereas even fairly simple Haskell code can produce very complex error messages, and ghci (for example) tends to make things worse rather than better.
Java isn't perfect and has been getting more complicated, boxing & generics for example, but still is not close to the pain one can create in a handfu of characters in Haskell (of course, C++ has the same problem, for different reasons).
Personally, I see Haskell as the C++ of functional language, and therefore would prefer not to teach either Haskell or C++ as a first language.