Let them eat bombs, part 2

The palestinians are feeling the money crunch.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) – Buying on credit. Selling gold dowries. Giving up tobacco and other small pleasures.

With their salaries weeks overdue and savings depleted, Palestinian families are finding creative ways to survive the Hamas-led government’s deepening financial crisis. Even banks and utilities are helping out by allowing customers to overdraw accounts or pay bills late.

Experts warn that a dire economic crisis is looming.

“This month, no one paid me,” said Kifayeh al-Ashkar, 40, who cleans houses for government workers in Nablus. “The government can’t pay the salaries of its workers, and the workers can’t pay me.”

She said she now feeds her four children plain rice, and has been forced to beg for handouts of milk.

So, you think they’re gonna cut down on rockets?

The financial crunch follows the January legislative election victory of Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction. After the new government was sworn in last month, the Palestinian economy, already battered by five years of fighting with Israel, took a turn for the worse.

Western donors who accuse Hamas of supporting terrorism cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and Israel suspended monthly payments of tax money it collects for the Palestinians.

Without these funds the government is broke and unable to pay its 165,000 salaried workers. No one got paid April 1, and the next pay day is less than a week away.

Two things. 1: “accused” of terrorism? Hamas effing brags about their terrorist attacks. 2: Where’d those extra 5,000 jobs come from? Two days ago, the number was 160,000. Who changed it? When? Why?

“Life has changed drastically. I don’t know how to manage,” said Elham Yassin, 48, a teacher in Asira, a village near Nablus.

Yassin, a mother of seven, earns $500 a month, while her husband, also a teacher, makes about $550. She said the family got a loan from her sister and is subsisting on bread, hummus, yogurt and other inexpensive staples.

“I don’t know where things are going. We don’t have any savings. I’m afraid for the future of my family,” she said.

The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the loss of these salaries has rippled throughout society.

In other words, the pals are pretty used to sucking at the government teat, and now they’re going to have to learn to fend for themselves. Except that Israel doesn’t want them, because they blow up Israelis standing in line at a falafel stand. And Egypt doesn’t want them, because their Arab brethren loathe the palestinians almost as much as they loathe the Jews. So, once again: Think they’re going to cut back on the bombs and bullets during this financial crisis?

Hamas officials say the Palestinians would rather face starvation than give up their principles. “All of the Palestinians are standing together,” said government spokesman Ghazi Hamad. “The government has repeatedly affirmed that we are not going to compromise.”

But the people are growing weary.

Sami Abu Atta, 33, a driver for the Public Works Ministry in Gaza, said he has quit his pack-a-day smoking habit to save money. He also has put off clothing purchases for his five children, and has to turn down their requests for candy.

“I don’t know what to do. Even if I want to start working as a thief, there is no one to rob,” he said.

Please. Yasser Arafat robbed you blind for years; the least you can do is rob the PA to repay the favor. So. Think the money crunch is going to stop them from trying to murder Israelis?

One Palestinian was killed and several others were hurt, including one who sustained critical wounds, after the Air Force fired missiles at two vehicles carrying Islamic Jihad members in the Gaza Strip Thursday morning.

Several hours after the strike it turned out that the IDF was able to hit a vehicle modified by the Palestinians in order to be used
as a mobile Qassam rocket launcher. A military source told Ynet the Palestinians used the vehicle to fire rockets from the northern Gaza Strip to Israel before making their quick getaway.

The vehicle allowed the Palestinians to fire rockets while in the car. Terrorists would arrive at an open area, fire the rocket, and escape back into area villages. Thursday’s strike marks the first time the army was able to hit such mobile launcher.

Guess not.