Israel Matzav: Loyal opposition?

Loyal opposition?

He who would risk the lives of American troops to set up a terror state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, objects to four United States Senators stating their views on war and peace.

So what do several sitting Senators do in such a delicate situation in which George Mitchell has recently raised the option - a remote one, but an option - of withholding loan guarantees as the first Bush administration did. They go to Israel and back prime minister Netanyahu against their own president in an open news conference.

The man who lost the last election reacts by directly undercutting the victor's foreign policy goals, and does so abroad in the very country Obama is trying to push toward change.

Lieberman, for his part, is effectively telling the Israelis that Obama does not control US foreign policy with respect to Israel, and that he will be prevented by Congress from exerting any pressure. He says this with a certainty, as if the autonomy of the president is simply moot. And remember that Lieberman and McCain often invoke the necessity for sanctions against foreign countries the US is trying to nudge or persuade in one way or another.

Funny, the last time I read the American constitution, Congress had the power to declare war and to borrow money on the credit of the United States. So why shouldn't four United States Senators express their views on those issues? It's not as if they tried to execute their own foreign policy as private citizens like Obama idol Jimmy Carter did when George W. Bush was in power.

Israel Matzav: Loyal opposition?