Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks regarding the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces reflected an official view in Israel that what occurred constituted a strategic development that extends beyond Venezuela to affect broader balances in the confrontation with Iran and its allies.
Speaking at the opening of the Israeli government’s weekly meeting, Netanyahu said the U.S. operation had come “to restore freedom and justice to this part of the world as well.”
Netanyahu spoke of a “shift” in Latin America, where several countries, in his words, are returning to the “American axis,” a trajectory he said that would also be reflected in the renewal of relations with Israel.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, for his part, reposted a speech he had delivered weeks earlier in Paraguay’s parliament, in which he addressed the erosion of democratic legitimacy in a number of Latin American countries and their transformation, as he put it, into platforms of influence for forces hostile to the West, foremost among them Iran.
Political and security circles in Israel view Maduro’s arrest as a direct blow to what Israel considers one of the most important gateways of Iranian influence outside the Middle East. Venezuela, under this assessment, was not merely a political ally of Tehran, but a strategic platform that enabled Iran and Hezbollah to operate in a geographic space far from traditional arenas of confrontation, yet close to the United States.
For years, Israel has regarded Venezuela as a center of gravity in Iran’s Latin America strategy. The system established by late President Hugo Chávez and continued by Maduro did not stop at severing relations with Israel in 2009; it forged a close partnership with Tehran that included extensive political, military, and economic cooperation. This cooperation, according to Israeli assessments, did not remain confined to official channels, but allowed for the construction of financial and logistical infrastructure and the provision of legal and administrative assistance that facilitated the movement of Iranian elements and others linked to Hezbollah within the continent.
In this context, Sarit Zehavi, president of the Alma Research and Education Center, said in an interview with Alhurra that Iran viewed Venezuela as a central partner in its project to build a network of proxies and footholds outside the Middle East, and as a strategic gateway toward the United States. According to Zehavi, Tehran did not see Caracas merely as a market for arms exports, but as a key link in its “war by proxy,” strategy.
Zehavi noted that Iran supplied Venezuela with drones, and that models of these Iranian drones appeared publicly in Venezuelan military parades years ago. The same types were later used in the war in Ukraine, she added. In her assessment, this similarity reflects an advanced level of military partnership, not merely a transient technical cooperation.
To underscore the depth of the relationship, Zehavi pointed to a propaganda image released years ago by the office of Iran’s supreme leader, featuring figures Tehran considers part of the “axis of resistance,” including Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah, Ziad al-Nakhalah, and Houthi leaders. At the edge of the image appeared Maduro, the only non-Muslim figure depicted. For Zehavi, the image was not a symbolic detail but a deliberate political message reflecting Venezuela’s place within Iran’s vision.
The newspaper Haaretz likewise cited Israeli security assessments that Venezuela had, over the years, become part of an Iranian sanctions-evasion network, including unofficial oil trade and the operation of “shadow fleets” coordinated with Russia, alongside exchanges of economic and technological services that enabled Tehran to maintain the flow of resources. These sources also estimated that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah benefited from local assistance that allowed them to obtain travel documents and move with relative freedom within Latin America.
Despite the significance of what occurred, Zehavi warned, in her interview with Alhurra, against assuming that Iran’s influence in Venezuela ended immediately with Maduro’s fall. In her view, that influence will recede gradually and may take time, particularly given the presence of established networks and intertwined interests. She stressed, however, that Venezuela was Iran’s most important country in Latin America, and that replacing the current leadership with an authority unwilling to purchase Iranian weapons or grant Tehran political and security footholds could fundamentally alter the overall picture.
In sum, Israel does not view Maduro’s arrest as an isolated event, but as another link in a broader international struggle with Iran and its axis. From the government position articulated by Netanyahu to the diplomatic confirmation offered by Sa’ar, to the security assessments presented to Alhurra, a single Israeli narrative is taking shape—one that sees Venezuela as geographically distant, yet acutely close in the calculus of regional and international conflicts.
