I hate to get back to this issue, but Secondhand Smokette has a post out today in her San Francisco Chronicle “Token Conservative” blog that shows the profound anti Semitism exhibited in some of the anti circumcision advocacy of Matthew Hess, the author of San Francisco’s upcoming anti circumcision referendum. From her post (in which she posts the image on the left:
I’ve been wondering if the folks behind the circumcision ballot measure in San Francisco — the subject of my most recent column — are anti-Semites. Here’s a clue. The mgmbill.org web site links to this site
Hmmmmm. Blonde superhero. An evil rabbi before a baby, a glass and a bottle of wine. And there’s a character named “warrior” of the “intactivist underground” who doesn’t care about rules or law and has one goal: “to stop child circumcisers dead in their tracks.”
Note also the classic depictions of “evil Jews” in the “Foreskin Man Trading Cards”—as in “Monster Mohel”—which is taken from Foreskin Man site, shown below.
This is really vile stuff, classic—and dangerous—anti Semitism. Or in the modern vernacular, it is unmitigated hate speech. Is it any wonder there were no religious exemptions allowed in the proposed law?
It is also worth noting the linking of the Foreskin Man Website from the main MGMbill Website isn’t an innocent mistake: Matthew Hess, the president of MGMbill, a non profit organization that pushes anti circumcision statutes nationwide, is also the author and prime mover behind the SF referendum, who also just happens to be the big cheese at the anti Semitic Foreskin Man site. There are other anti Semitic “trading cards” too. Awful. Just awful. This kind of advocacy has no place in a free and diverse society.
Are all or even most people who want to outlaw circumcision anti Semitic? Of course not. But I think it is important for both opponents and proponents of legally outlawing circumcision to see the values exhibited by one of the movement’s prime leaders. That should give everyone great pause.
Debra also has a regular op/ed column in today’s Chronicle about the circumcision controversy, which you can link to here.
