Two pieces from Human Events: one by Newt and one about Newt

Newt put out his weekly newsletter today, and the topic was United Nations funding. Newt writes:

Only at the United Nations is it possible to imagine a Palestinian state announced on a meeting agenda.

U.N. corruption was on full display last week when, as the Hudson Institute’s Anne Bayefsky​ noted, the U.N. published its provisional list of speakers for the September opening session.

It listed the speaker from “Palestine” as the “Head of State” for the first time ever.

This is just a preview of a diplomatic crisis and an existential threat to the state of Israel that is shaping up for September.

The Palestinian Authority is promising to ram ahead with its bid in just over a month to be recognized as a state at the United Nations, and the General Assembly will likely approve it over the objections of the United States and Israel.

This will define a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, stretching to the 1967 borders and encompassing territory that currently is home to thousands of Israelis.

It is a dangerous plan.

It would violate every standing agreement the Palestinians have with Israel, including the Oslo Accords, to negotiate a final border agreement.

U.N. recognition would take place totally apart from any negotiation with Israel, and without the Palestinians renouncing violence or acknowledging Israel's statehood.

...

In spite of the U.N.’s totally dishonest approach to Israel, President Obama apparently retains faith in what is clearly a corrupt organization. The Administration’s commitment to “multilateralism” at the U.N. is nothing more than appeasement.

President Obama and the State Department must be clear with Western allies. They should reject action that would reward terrorist groups who refuse to abide by the basic principles of human dignity and freedom.

...

The United States has the leverage to prevent this diplomatic disaster if the Obama Administration wants to use it: we are by far the largest donor to the U.N., financing roughly a quarter of its entire budget.

We should be willing to say that if the U.N. is going to circumvent negotiations and declare the territory of one of its own members an independent state, we aren’t going to pay for it. We can keep our $7.6 billion a year.

We don’t need to fund a corrupt institution to beat up on our allies.

That is exactly how President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker handled a similar drive to force Palestinian statehood in 1989.

...

That is the resolve we need to show today. Washington should make clear immediately that it will not accept dangerous stunts that threaten Israel’s survival.

When the U.N. is set to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state and Israel is the only country in the world not even permitted to determine its own capital, something is very wrong.

The time to stop this disaster is before it happens. The time for Congress and President Obama to set out the cost of a United Nations betrayal of Israel is before the General Assembly meets.

Here is the link to the full newsletter again.

Also appearing on HumanEvents.com today was an article by Tony Lee, who is helping cover the GOP Presidential Primary for the conservative publication.

Some excerpts:

"We had a group of paid professionals who had not worked for me before," Gingrich said. "If I were to do it over again, I would not have hired the paid professionals."

When the consultants left, Gingrich had to reboot his strategy, and said he would finally run the campaign he had always wanted.

Gingrich rattled off what seemed like an idea a second, which included repealing the Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts that he says are discouraging investors. He called President Obama​ an "anti-American energy" President. He called for a modernized Food and Drug Administration that can help create jobs. He spoke of Executive Orders he would sign on his first day in office and ways to make the legislative process in Congress more open and transparent to gain back the trust of the American people. He cited his time in Congress, when he believes he was responsible for balancing the budget and helping end welfare programs and begin the modernization of some previously untouchable entitlement programs.

Gingrich said he's building a "substantive, solutions-oriented" campaign with positive ads and speeches. He also said he'll be upbeat at the debates and hinted he would not cut down his competitors.

"My debates will be positive," Gingrich said. "Not so much about Obama and maybe not about the news media, but I will be [positive] about the other candidates."

In the pre-social media days of campaigning, Gingrich probably would have had no chance of reviving his campaign.

But with the proliferation of social media that makes access to information cheaper while proliferating it at a rapid clip, a candidate can gain momentum as fast as he can lose it.

With a lean budget, Gingrich will rely ever more on social media to put himself into the conversation.

For instance, his campaign to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill cost the campaign nothing because it took them three hours to set it up on Facebook. The same is true for video and telephone conferencing services.

And today, Gingrich rolled out a “Team 10” initiative, which is “about reasserting this basic principle, and creating smaller government by working together and being bigger citizens” and reminding Americans that the country “is exceptional because we believe sovereignty begins with the individual” and “we loan power to the government, not the other way around.”

According to a press release, Tea Party and 912 Project leaders will lead Team 10, and through a Facebook app, they will solicit ideas on how to limit Washington’s overreach and enforce the 10th Amendment.

In addition, according to the release, “through voting, online and in-person events, and talking with each other, the best of these ideas will eventually become a ‘10th Amendment Enforcement Act,’ and “as the Republican nominee, Gingrich would include” it as part of a new Contract with America.

These initiatives that integrate social media with politics and policy put Gingrich ahead of the curve, which is why he scoffed at unsubstantiated rumors that many of his Twitter followers (Gingrich was ahead of the curve in successfully adopting the medium) were artificial.

“Folks who want to criticize me about using technology should come on [Google +] with me and create a hangout,” Gingrich said, insisting that unfounded rumors that a majority of his Twitter followers were artificially generated were “baloney.”

Gingrich also noted that he is proud that he has called for the Republican Party to be a more inclusive to minorities and noted the diversity of his audience at a recent Iowa campaign event.

“We did an event in Des Moines last Thursday night, and we had over 20 Chinese-American students,” Gingrich said, noting such diversity is sometimes lacking in Republican audiences.

Gingrich feels confident enough in his ideas that he still sees a viable path to the nomination.

“As the economy gets worse and the world gets more dangerous, people will look up and say, ‘Who could debate Obama successfully next October and who could actually govern effectively if they were elected?” Gingrich said. “And that will steadily lead to an increase in support.”

As proof, Gingrich cited a recent Johnson County event in Iowa in which, according to him, “Every reporter who was there said the room changed decisively when I was there, and the people walked out saying ‘He’s the guy [to beat Obama].’ ”

The coverage of Gingrich’s event in Johnson County backs up Gingrich’s claim. Reporters from outlets across the spectrum noted that, among the four presidential candidates who were present at the event, Gingrich received the longest standing ovation and generated the most buzz.

Here is the full article link again.