In case you had any doubts:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced Israel as a “genocidal” government on Sunday as he hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad on his first visit to Latin America. Chavez has drawn close to Syria and Iran, and cut ties with Israel last year to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. “We have common enemies,” Chavez said, describing them as “the Yankee empire, the genocidal state of Israel.” Chavez had particularly strong words for Israel throughout Assad’s visit. He reiterated his view Saturday that the Golan Heights – captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – should one day be returned to Syria. “Someday the genocidal state of Israel will be put in its place, in the proper place and hopefully a real democratic state will be born,” Chavez said Saturday. “But it has become the murderous arm of the Yankee empire – who can doubt it? – which threatens all of us.” Assad on Sunday called Israel a state “based on crime, slaughter.”