Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that he will “always stand by Israel as a nation,” while adding that he hopes Israelis will oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the elections later this year.

“I’m not happy with the decisions that the prime minister of Israel has made over the last few years,” Kelly said in response to a question about whether he agrees with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent description of Netanyahu as a war criminal. “The way they conducted the operations in Gaza, there were a lot of mistakes made,” Kelly responded. “That being said, Israel is an ally of ours. We support the Israeli people. I’m going to always stand by Israel as a nation.”

He indicated he did not agree with Mamdani’s call for the U.S. government to arrest Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to the United States.

“The best way to resolve this issue with a prime minister — that, just like our president, is not doing the job they were hired to do — is for him to be defeated at the ballot box,” Kelly said. “So that’s coming up pretty soon here. I hope the Israeli people rally around a candidate that will take Israel in a better direction.”

Asked about the Iran war, Kelly questioned the administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget and $67 billion supplemental funding request .

“Do we really feel that we’re that threatened, and we need to spend these sums of money for our defense? We’ve got programs that this administration is going to spend money on that aren’t going to work, and things that we don’t need,” Kelly said. “What they’re asking for is not reasonable.”

But he said he hasn’t made a final decision on the supplemental yet, while calling the administration’s handling of the war in Iran a “disaster.”

Kelly also acknowledged that he’s considering a presidential run in 2028.

“We have to see what are the issues that we’re facing after we get on the other side of November here,” Kelly said, emphasizing the need for Democrats to take back the House and Senate. “So this is a discussion I’m going to continue to have with my family, but we’ve got plenty of time.”

He also sounded supportive of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to make South Carolina the first Democratic primary state in the presidential election, praising Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the state’s Senate nominee Annie Andrews as well as Nancy Lacore, the party’s recruit in the open seat of retiring Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a video statement to X on Tuesday night under the caption “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal,” in which he accused the Israeli prime minister of a litany of atrocities in Gaza, but ultimately admitted he would not be able to fulfill a campaign promise of arresting him under a warrant from the International Criminal Court. 

The democratic socialist pledged to arrest Netanyahu from the earliest days of his candidacy for the job in 2024, and reiterated the promise in the final weeks of the race last year. But days after attesting to The New York Times that he was still consulting city attorneys about his ability to actually enforce the ICC warrant against the leader of the Jewish state, Mamdani finally acknowledged that his office had no power to do so.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said, after an extended attack on Israeli military policy in Gaza — one that made no mention of Hamas or of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that prompted the latest round of the conflict.

Mamdani called Netanyahu the “architect of a horrific genocide,” naming him individually responsible for the “maiming of tens of thousands of children as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia” and for the “targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers,” among other charged accusations. 

The mayor further called on federal authorities to act on the ICC warrant, despite the country not being a party to the court — and despite President Donald Trump’s recent pledge on Truth Social that Netanyahu would not be arrested anywhere in the United States. 

“Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City,” the mayor concluded. “We can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people. That is my commitment to you.”

The video ends without Mamdani explaining what that commitment would mean in practice.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil accused Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar of being a “war criminal” after Sa’ar spoke about connections between Caracas and Iran and the latter’s terrorist proxies. 

Sa’ar made the remarks on Monday in a speech before a joint session of Paraguay’s National Congress in Asunción.

“In South America,” Sa’ar said, “criminals are building narco-terror alliances with the Middle East terror states. The nexus of this network is Venezuela.”

Sa’ar added that Venezuela is driving a destabilizing refugee crisis and serving as a base for Hezbollah terrorists.

In addition, he pointed out that Venezuela hosts an Iranian weapons production facility.

“Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said openly that Venezuela is part of ‘the axis of resistance,’” Sa’ar added, referring to Iran’s partners in terrorism against Israel. “He said that this axis exists in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. When he says this, we should believe him.”

Gil, who represents the Maduro regime, which remained in office despite losing an election last year, used his social media accounts to call Sa’ar “a war criminal and a genocider.” 

“What he should be doing is not mentioning Venezuela, but preparing to stand trial for the crimes his government commits against the Palestinian people,” he said. “The name of Venezuela is too great for your filthy mouth and hands stained with innocent blood.” 

Gil said that Sa’ar represents “the barbarism and systematic violation of all the rules that govern civilized humanity. We don’t care about your opinion … Sooner than later, you will have to answer to international justice.”

Hezbollah is involved in organized crime in Latin America to fund its terrorist operations worldwide. It has long operated in the border area between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, which has a large Lebanese population, and later expanded into Venezuela amid deepening ties between Caracas and Tehran. The Iranian proxy is designated a terrorist organization in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay, but not in Venezuela or other Latin American states.