Intrafada news: Gaza government employees go on strike

Workers in the Hamas Gaza government are striking today, closing down all government offices, as a protest for their not being paid by the PA.

The supposedly unified PA has only agreed to pay the old, non-working "workers" who were employed in Gaza before the Hamas coup, not the Hamas workers.

This one day strike is meant as a warning, with more drastic moves planned if the Hamas workers do not get paid.

Generally whenever there is a crisis like this in Gaza, Gulf countries like Qatar will step in and place  a band-aid on the problem by tossing a few million dollars their way. Then everyone can stop any pretense of acting responsibly for the next few months until the next crisis.

Hamas certainly engineers some crises - like the fuel issues - in order to force Arab governments to pony up cash or goods. It is not out of the question that this strike is part of that strategy to keep Hamas as financially independent as possible, as there is no oversight or auditing of these one-time donations.

Either way, it is clear that there is no "unity" in the PA, and the PLO is not anxious to push any real unity forward.