The Covenant: This made the NYT blog. It was in response to a NYT article "Efforts to Ban Circumcision Gain Traction in California": If this isn't the most utterly INSANE law I do not know what is. How long has this rite been practiced? If one is a Jew it has been done for over 5000 years. Is this the state's business? I think NOT. This is between the parents and a physician much like abortion should be. Male circumcision has absolutely NOTHING to do with female genital mutilation which is done to prevent a female from experiencing her sexuality. Jewish male circumcision, a centuries old practice, has, of course, religious symbolic significance of the Abrahamic covenant the Jewish people established with God. Criticize that if you like. Nonetheless, if one is a Jew it is an unquestioned practice and the essence of being a Jewish male. It is unthinkable to me EVEN if one is not religious which I am not to eschew it.

Truthfully, I believe there is more to this attempt at its eradication than thinking it is purely a correct medical decision to remain "intact." Yet again the essence of being a Jew is assaulted. One of the most important rites of the Jewish people is under attack. People who attack circumcision and want an actual LAW against it are not being honest as to what is hiding behind their passion. I firmly believe in this case -- not all but for many -- it is an end run around a basic anti-Semitic fever that lies dormant at times but resurrects itself under certain circumstances.

Sure, why not go after the Jew in this manner. That way we can appear that we think it is a medically unnecessary procedure but in truth the hostility of a particularly Jewish rite is at the movement's core.

It is understandable if one does not want to circumcise a male child but it is anything but understandable if one wants the STATE to intervene to prevent it.

I have never met a Jewish man who said that his circumcised genital area presented a problem. The usual arguments for it are well known such as cleanliness and the lessening of some types of STD's and HIV transmission. There is also the claim that women engaging in sex with circumcised men cut their risk of uterine and vaginal cancer. It stands to reason that cleanliness would contribute to the lessening of infection. These rationales can be debated but what CANNOT be debated is the state having the unmitigated gall to interfere in this long held Jewish tradition. I am not a religious Jew at all and yet if I had a male child that child WOULD be circumcised. They would have to cart me off to jail to prevent it.

There is more to this than meets the eye. Yet again the Jew, just when we think we are safe, someone is always there to kick us in the posterior and blame us for everything from hurting babies through circumcision to creating the Wall Street madness.

When will this cancer, this infection, this vile pathology of Jew hating ever die? Even IF there were not one Jew to hate left in the world someone would find a way to keep the hatred alive. Now it's circumcision, PLEASE give us a break. Do what you want with your child but leave mine to me!