Let them eat nail bombs
Hamas can’t find a way to cover the PA’s bills. Everyone take a moment to listen to the universe’s smallest violin playing the universe’s fastest sad tune.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The Hamas-led government has still not found a way to pay its 165,000 employees, whose salaries already are three weeks overdue, the finance minister said Thursday.
Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek also told The Associated Press in an interview that there is no guarantee money pledged by Muslim countries will reach the empty Palestinian treasury.
The government employees are the backbone of the Palestinian labor force, and their salaries sustain about one-third of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The March salaries, due at the beginning of April, have not been paid. Abdel Razek said he could not commit to a payment date.
“For sure, the salaries are my main priority, but it is a problem,” Abdel Razek said. “It’s a puzzling problem. You can’t do anything. You can only wait. So I have a strange feeling. For the first time, I find myself in such a dilemma. But I hope that God will provide a solution.”
[...] In the two months between the election and Hamas’ assumption of power, the outgoing government of the defeated Fatah Party hired 9,000 more employees, he said. The number of security officers has risen to 80,000, from the 60,000 reported by the last government, he said.
The Palestinian Authority needs about $160 million every month - $118 million for the payroll and $40 million in operating costs, he said. The government has about $30 million in monthly income, but that money is being spent on the most crucial ministries - health and social welfare.
The United States and the European Union have cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas formed its Cabinet late last month. The West says it will shun the Hamas-led government until the Islamic militants recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements.
Israel also cut off its monthly transfer of about $55 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
In a report issued Wednesday, the United Nations warned of a grave humanitarian crisis if the foreign funding remains frozen, with poverty in the West Bank and Gaza reaching as high as 75 percent.
And the money quote:
Asked about a long-term solution, Abdel Razek said: “The required way out is impossible because we are not going to concede our principles.”
He said the group would try to open a dialogue with the West, but was evasive about how it would do so without meeting the three demands of the international community.
Feel free to eat the metal shrapnel that would otherwise be placed in suicide bombs. It should satisfy your daily iron requirements.
Of course, the world is going to blink and allow the aid to pour through any minute now. Just watch. They have no problem at all with terrorists running the PA. They let Arafat do it for decades.
