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.

So, when you get that random high-pitched tone in your ear every so often, is that, like, feedback from a microphone-type tone, or is it a “testing, onetwothree” tone? Or is it just your eardrum rebooting itself?

Maybe it’s all three.

Say, fellow Richmonders: Who wants to go see United 93 when it opens next week?

I think it’s a good film to see with a group of people. Because I’m quite sure I’m going to need my Kleenex by the end.

The announcement that the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority would be using the eternally-broke PA coffers to arm and organize terrorists into police and security squads should be no surprise at this point:

The new Palestinian interior minister named a renowned militant as his top aide on Thursday and announced the formation of a new security branch to be composed of militants.

The moves were part of an ongoing power struggle between the new Hamas-led Cabinet and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Interior Minister Said Siyam issued a decree appointing Jamal Abu Samhadana, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, as director general of the Interior Ministry. Samhadana’s group is responsible for many of the homemade rockets launched at Israel in recent weeks.

Based on previous cases of terrorists moonlighting as no-show cops for the easy EU and US funded paycheck and cops carrying their CIA-supplied weapons with them on their midnight sniping rampages on settlements and border highways, this move merely formalizes the longstanding fact in the “Occupied Territories” that the roles of “terrorist group” and “security force” are interchangeable.

At least Hamas is being honest about their intentions, as opposed to Arafat’s gun and plastic olive branch approach with Fateh and its various well-funded spinoff groups.

Say, remember the much-vaunted Muslim respect for other religions’ holy sites? Turns out, not so much.

Unknown vandals desecrated the tomb of talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, shattering iron bars at the entrance to the structure and setting it alight.

Located in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Kana, just west of the Golani junction, the tomb is the final resting place of one of the most prominent rabbis of the talmudic era. It consists of a small stone building, which stands over an underground burial cave.

The entrance to the site and the sign hanging over it were partially blackened by smoke as a result of the fire that was set, and mounds of garbage were strewn nearby.

[...] Workers will be sent to the site on Sunday to repair the damage, the official told the Jerusalem Post, adding that the tomb has been the target of regular attacks by local Arabs, often as frequently as twice a month.

In October 2000, the tomb was set ablaze by local Arabs, causing extensive damage to the site.

Sure. Let’s let ‘em have the Temple Mount back. Because they’ve got such a great history of maintaining Jewish holy sites.

Not.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise had a baby girl. Her name is Suri.

I still want to know who the father is.

Update: Omri points out that Tom Cruise doesn’t know nearly as much as he thinks he does. The name isn’t Hebrew.

Let’s take a quick look around the world, shall we?

Hamas moderation watch/EU stupidity watch: Italy’s new premier decided that one of the first things his administration would do is call the leader of a terrorist organization and tell Al-Jazeera that he thinks Hamas is making “openings,” which, presumably, is his word for “moderation.” Some of his countrymen are none too pleased.

Jack Straw does it again: First, he says he wants normal relations with Hamas. Then he said that’s not what he meant. Meantime, Moscow, Norway, Turkey, Venezuela, and South Africa are going to or have hosted Hamas visits. No surprises there, really.

Anti-Semitic chants at a soccer game: How unsurprising. The twist: The player being insulted isn’t even Jewish. He just has a Jewish-sounding name.

Yeah, sure: An Arab MK says that Hamas is going to adopt the 2002 Saudi peace initiative — the one that Abdullah pulled out of his drawer (not drawers) while Tom Friedman was in the room. Shyeah, right, they’re going to adopt that one. Liar.