In response to the violent anti-Semitic protest outside a Los Angeles shul which was targeted for hosting an event promoting the sale of real estate in Israel, CNN senior political commentator Van Jones compared the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf and the Confederate flag, sparking a meltdown in pro-Hamas circles. Jones said, “If you show up there wearing a keffiyeh, you show up there with your face covered, you show up there chanting ‘River to the Sea,’ that would be just like a white person running up with the Confederate flag in Harlem. You’re not trying to start a conversation, you’re trying to start a fight. Stop doing that. Don’t do that.” Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief of Zeteo and former MSNBC host, reacted, “Palestinian-American kids keep getting violently attacked – one of them was murdered – while mainstream media commentators say inciting/dehumanizing stuff like this.” Wajahat Ali, a Daily Beast columnist, called Jones’ comments “an insane thing to say out loud,” while Jack Mirkinson, senior editor at The Nation, tweeted, “A keffiyeh is not, in fact, the same as a Confederate flag. You get to say the most outlandish nonsense as long as it’s about Palestine.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)