Phone Call From Biden Said to Precipitate Ukraines UN Yes Vote

[Mosby]

Source: Tablet

The repercussions of Friday’s United Nations Security Council vote in favor of a resolution urging Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory” continue to reverberate. The resolution, which declared Jewish settlement anywhere in the West Bank including the Old City of Jerusalem to be in violation of international law, passed by 14-0, with the United States abstaining—a game-changing action that broke with decades of diplomatic guarantees to Israel and which enraged American Jewish political leaders in both parties.

A wealth of evidence is now emerging that, far from simply abstaining from a UN vote, which is how the Administration and its press circle at first sought to characterize its actions, the anti-Israel resolution was actively vetted at the highest levels of the U.S. Administration, which then led a pressure campaign—both directly and through Great Britain—to convince other countries to vote in favor of it.

Tablet has confirmed that one tangible consequence of the high-level U.S. campaign was a phone call from Vice President Joseph Biden to Ukrainian President Pavel Poroshenko, which succeeded in changing Ukraine’s vote from an expected abstention to a “yes.” According to one U.S. national security source, the Obama Administration needed a 14-0 vote to justify what the source called “the optics” of its own abstention.

“Did Biden put pressure on the Ukrainians? Categorically yes,” said a highly-placed figure within the Israeli government with strong connections to Ukrainian government sources, who confirmed to Tablet that the Americans had put direct pressure on both the Ukrainian delegation—and on Poroshenko personally in Kiev. “That Biden told them to do it is 1000% true,” the source affirmed.

Read more: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/221128/phone-call-from-biden-said-to-precipitate-ukraines-un-yes-vote

[tenorly]

1. And now they're threatening New Zealand and other countries.

With friends like Israel...

[Phoenix61]

2. I'm curious

How much pressure could Biden put on them? Seriously, what could he actually do?

[Little Tich]

3. Is Tablet Mag one of the fake news sources that I've heard so much about?

There seems to be very little of substance in the OP, just a lot of speculation. If I wanted to read unsubstantiated Obama bashing crap like this, I might as well read the Russian Times.

[oberliner]

9. No

Salon has the same story.

Joe Biden reportedly played an important role in the UN vote on Israeli settlements

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/28/joe-biden-reportedly-played-an-important-role-in-the-un-vote-on-israeli-settlements/

[karynnj]

10. The Salon article is based on the Tablet article

Tablet is an interesting Jewish internet magazine. As a news source, I would not put it ahead of something like Daily Kos -- in that it hosts articles that are given to it. Here, this is a rather poorly sourced article.

Not to mention, its main piece of information is that Biden spoke with the PM. It says that the resolution was not on the readout of the meeting. However, what if it was? The US and the Ukraine discussing ANY international matter that interests either is completely legitimate. Note that the same people pointing to calls like that one as smoking guns, when they have no problem at all with Netanyahu promising to abstain on the General Assembly vote on investigating Syrian war crimes hoping to curry with Russia (a failed attempt at quid por quo) and telling NZ that it would be an act of war (!)

[oberliner]

11. Exactly

Which indicates that Tablet magazine is not a "fake news source" but rather one that is taken seriously by other media outlets.

This article seems to have questionable sources as you indicate but it is certainly not fake news by any stretch.

[Little Tich]

12. Perhaps it's just me, but trying to make wild speculation look like factual news seems pretty fake..

And the article you refer to is based on the OP. For me, circular linking is a hallmark of fake news. I remain totally unconvinced by the OP.

[oberliner]

13. Except that isn't what fake news is

And Tablet isn't a fake news site.

[Little Tich]

14. You seem to believe that the OP is factually correct. n/t

[oberliner]

15. No, I believe that an Israeli MK made such a claim

Newsweek reported the same thing:

MK Ze'ev Elkin, Israel’s minister of Jerusalem affairs and environmental protection, claimed that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden personally asked Ukraine to support the resolution.

http://www.newsweek.com/tel-aviv-diary-bibi-rails-against-world-536597

[Little Tich]

16. The OP is uncritically pushing speculation as fact,

while the Newsweek article is clearly defining it as unsubstantiated hearsay from an Israeli politician. There is a difference between the two sources - one is fake news, the other is journalism. If you can't see the difference, I can't help you.

[oberliner]

17. No, it's not

If you think Tablet Magazine is fake news, you don't know what fake news is.

[geek tragedy]

4. LOL, "highly placed source in the Israeli government"

anonymously vouches for claims made by Israeli government.

Make Israel Great Again!

[lamp_shade]

6. I noticed that immediately.

[pkdu]

5. Wow - great sourcing , must read this one more often.

NOT

[ananda]

7. It was the right thing to do ..

even though Netanyahoo's knickers are all in a twist
over it.

Israel has postponed the vote on the settlement at
yahoo's request.

He's pissed as hell, but he also knows he needs America
as an ally.

[Snotcicles]

8. This line: That Biden told them to do it is 1000% true, the source affirmed.

Means that the comment is ten times more than true. Sounds like embellishment to me.

[Blue Idaho]

18. If I've told you once I've told you a million times

Don't exaggerate...

[lanlady]

19. Good for Ukraine!

Israel stabbed Ukraine in the back when it came to the resolution on Crimea. Payback's a bitch.