Vote Expects to Win Overwhelming Support from General Assembly. - The long-discussed UN draft resolution on upgrading Palestine’s status to “non-member observer state” is expected to come to a vote on Thursday, and is receiving a last-minute shot in the arm with an endorsement from Hamas. Hamas had previously expressed ambivalence about the move, but in the wake of last week’s Gaza War is moving toward reconciliation with Fatah, and today’s endorsement underscores how much those unity talks have already progressed. Israel and the United States have repeatedly pressed Fatah to scrap the plan, with the US insisting it would hurt peace negotiations (that have been stalled for over a year at any rate) and Israel threatening unspecified retaliation.

Jason Ditz: Israeli Cabinet Split on Taking Revenge for Palestinian UN Bid - Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is leading the call for an immediate forcible ouster of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, while others say Israel is in no position to do this so soon after the Gaza War. A moderate group led by cabinet ministers Dan Meridor and Benny Begin are calling for Israel to hold off on any move to see if Abbas tries to take action against Israel in the Hague, saying they should only oust him after such a move. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz is proposing a “compromise” between the two of simply seizing all Palestinian tax dollars in retaliation.

Leading US strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, unofficial dean of the realist school of American foreign policy experts, has drawn an unflattering picture of US-Israel relations. - In a speech to the National Iranian American Council, Brzezinski said, “I don’t think there is an implicit obligation for the United States to follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do. If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we’ll automatically be drawn into it, I think it is the obligation of friendship to say, ‘you’re not going to be making national decision for us.’ I think that the United States has the right to have its own national security policy.”

Back on July 3, we made an explicit and very simple prediction: "now that the natural succession path at the BOE has been terminally derailed, it brings up those two other gentlemen already brought up previously as potential future heads of the BOE, both of whom just happened to work, or still do, at... Goldman Sachs: Canada's Mark Carney or Goldman's Jim O'Neil. Granted both have denied press speculation they will replace Mervyn King, but it's not like it would be the first time a banker lied to anyone now, would it (and makes one wonder if this whole affair was not merely orchestrated by the Squid from the get go... but no, that would be a 'conspiracy theory'.)" A few weeks later, in "On The Path To Global Goldmanation: Former Goldmanite Mark Carney To Head The BOE After All?" we added:

Granted both have denied press speculation they will replace Mervyn King, but it's not like it would be the first time a banker lied to anyone now, would it (and makes one wonder if this whole affair was not merely orchestrated by the Squid from the get go... but no, that would be a 'conspiracy theory'.)" We wonder if this speculation can be upgraded from conspiracy theory to conspiracy fact, now that Bloomberg itself has written a major article discussing just this suddenly very likely outcome.

AWIP: Banker Coup: Goldman Sachs Takes Over Europe
Paul Craig Roberts: Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over
Stephen Lendman: Goldman Sachs: Master of the Universe
Matt Taibbi: Goldman Sachs -the Root of All Evil?

Over 2 years, Corzine gradually increased his ill-advised bets on European sovereign debt. Along the way he tossed aside anyone who got in the way. From the sound of it, Corzine seemed to think he had a sure thing—which given who he was, was plausible. (Of course even sure things aren’t ever sure.) Goldman Sachs continues to pull strings all over Europe. Corzine was, of course, a former Goldman Sachs CEO. As a former senator and governor, he was also well positioned to benefit from anything that might move things on the government front. Yet, even with all his privilege and insight his bet went the wrong way, in a big way. Then, in a desperate effort to save MF Global’s collective posterior, desperate measures were taken.

Ten thousand US troops will stay in Afghanistan past 2014, senior officials say, despite earlier demands from President Barack Obama to end the war during the second year of his upcoming term. - Most of the 66,000 or so troops currently positioned in Afghanistan will be removed by President Obama’s predetermined deadline, sources say, but a substantial amount of Americans will be asked to remain indefinitely to conduct training and counterterrorism operations after allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops are expunged in late 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, Gen. John Allen, the top US commander overseeing the war in Afghanistan, proposed that anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 troops remain overseas following the end of the current NATO operation occurring there. A number closer to 10,000 was established after top Obama administration officials reached a compromise with the Pentagon, the paper reports.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has met with the country’s top judges to reassure them that last Thursday's decree granting him sweeping powers is “temporary” and limited only to “sovereignty-related issues.” - According to a presidential spokesman, no amendments were made to the decree after the meeting, Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The talks with the Supreme Judicial Council (SNJ) come as demonstrators in Cairo continue a week-long sit-in protesting the Morsi's move to grant himself near-absolute powers, including immunity from judicial oversight. Meanwhile the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party has announced that it has canceled a massive pro-Morsi rally to avoid “public tension.” The president told the judges that he acted within his rights when issuing the decree, and that the declaration did not "infringe" on the judiciary, according to Morsi's spokesperson, Yasser Ali. On Sunday, the SNJ said the declaration – which shields Morsi’s decisions from judicial review – must only be applied to “sovereign matters,” suggesting that the council does not completely reject the decree.

The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed as experts try to ascertain whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned. The probe comes less than a week after the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel and precedes a UN vote on Palestine’s nation status. - Traces of a radioactive substance were found of Arafat’s effects in July, adding impetus to the theory he was murdered. The procedure began at 05:00 GMT and was carried out in the presence of French, Russian and Swiss experts to verify its validity. Scientists took samples of Arafat’s bones, which they will take back to their respective countries. There they will be analyzed for traces of radioactive material and other lethal substances. Experts have said a full investigation into the causes of Arafat’s death could take several months.

BBC: Yasser Arafat's remains exhumed in murder inquiry

Governments Target Reporters Worldwide. - We’ve reported that reporters are an endangered species, are targeted as terrorists, and journalists have been killed all over the world. And see this. The New York Times notes:

In many parts of the globe, its profession is under murderous assault. [...] “Targeting journalism has become a trend, and now the people who are harassing and killing journalists include governments as well as the people you would expect,” said [Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of The Guardian]. Journalists who dig into murky and dangerous corners of the world have become accustomed to being threatened and sometimes hunted by drug lords and gangsters, but now some governments have decided shooting the messenger is a viable option. The [Committee to Protect Journalists] reports that government officials and their allies are now suspected of being responsible for more than a third of the murders of journalists, a higher proportion than killings attributed to terrorist groups or criminal enterprises.

Palestinian rights groups have condemned Western countries for their silence about Israel’s massacre of children during the eight-day war on the Gaza Strip, Press TV reports. - On Monday, the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, based in the Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp in the besieged enclave, accused Israeli military forces of systematically targeting Palestinian children. “Children were the most targeted by the Israeli airstrikes. This is not the first time because during the last war children were also systematically targeted. This is nothing but another Israeli war crime, and Israel leaders must be brought to justice,” Samir Zaqqut, an official of the center said. Many local nongovernmental organizations are attempting to alleviate the trauma in children who were affected by the airstrikes.

Stephen Zunes: Abetting Murder in Gaza
PressTV: Israeli troops injure 2 Palestinians in southern Gaza Strip
IMEMC: Three Injured By Israeli Fire In Khan Younis
IMEMC: Woman Dies Of Wounds Suffered During Israel’s War On Gaza
Al Mezan: As ceasefire holds, more hurt to civilians and civilian objects is revealed, 162 Palestinians killed and 1,039 injured

“There is no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” President Barack Obama said at a press conference last week. He drew on this general observation in order to justify Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel’s most recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In describing the situation this way, he assumes, like many others, that Gaza is a political entity external and independent of Israel. This is not so. It is true that Israel officially disengaged from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, withdrawing its ground troops and evacuating the Israeli settlements there. But despite the absence of a permanent ground presence, Israel has maintained a crushing control over Gaza from that moment until today. The testimonies of Israeli army veterans expose the truth of that “disengagement.” Before Operation Pillar of Defense, after all, Israel launched Operations Summer Rains and Autumn Clouds in 2006, and Hot Winter and Cast Lead in 2008 -- all involving ground invasions. In one testimony, a veteran speaks of “a battalion operation” in Gaza that lasted for five months, where the soldiers were ordered to shoot “to draw out terrorists” so they “could kill a few.”

A bitter and hard fought election campaign in Catalonia was dominated by the issue of independence from Spain. - The elections were called by the Catalan president Artur Mas in a bid to get a mandate for a referendum, something the government in Madrid has ruled out. Parties seeking Catalan independence won a majority, although Mr Mas' centre-right CiU party lost seats. Ahead of the result being declared, BBC Scotland's political correspondent Niall O'Gallagher reported from Barcelona for the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme.

Niall O'Gallagher: Catalonia's 'bitter and personal election' - Video

For the past few months the Occupy Wall Street movement has been fairly quiet. But due to Superstorm Sandy, OWS has proven to be alive and well. The demonstrators have banned together to provide aid to the people of New York and New Jersey who were affected by Sandy. Sara Jaffe, associate editor for AlterNet, joins us with more.