Hamas Needs Cash

Hamas is having trouble paying its bills.

Unpaid teachers launched the school year on Saturday with a strike that shut down most schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and sorely tested the embattled Hamas government's ability to survive.

Hundreds of Hamas militiamen deployed around schools in Gaza, Hamas' stronghold, unsuccessfully trying to persuade teachers and students who showed up to remain.

That is one heck of an anti-truancy program.

Of course when you consider what they teach the kids who go to these schools, closing the schools may be a net improvement for the Palestinians.

In the West Bank, activists from the rival Fatah party stood in front of schools, urging teachers to comply with the strike call, at times shooting in the air.

Teachers embarked upon the open-ended walkout because the Hamas government - impoverished by international sanctions meant to pressure it to drop their violent campaign against Israel - hasn't paid them or 130,000 other government employees since taking office in March.

We shall see if hunger beats politics. It usually does.