Jill Stein criticizes U.S. 'slave-like mentality toward Israel'

Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein blasted both major-party candidates for having a "slave-like" mentality toward Israel during an alternative debate between herself and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson on Monday.

"This slave-like mentality toward Israel is absolutely unjustified," Stein said. "We need to start raising the bar for Israel and holding them to an equal standard for supporting human rights and international law, and ending occupations and illegal settlements and apartheid."

Stein's remarks came at the tail end of her response to a question about U.S. foreign policy regarding Iran, in which she accused both President Barack Obama and and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, of sabre-rattling.

"They're both vowing their obedience to the right-wing government in Israel, and they are both saying that they will stop at nothing, but that war will be the last resort," Stein said. "So, once again we're seeing shades of gray here between the Democratic and Republican candidates, but we're not seeing what the American people really need and what international security really needs."

Stein cited Iran's work with the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of more than 100 nations, earlier this year. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, the group adopted the Tehran Declaration, a document calling for "establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and mass destruction weapons in the Middle East," and urging Israel to sign on and adopt international guidelines regarding its nuclear facilities.

The New York Times also reported that the 120-nation coalition expressed unanimous support for Iran's burgeoning nuclear program, which has attracted both economic sanctions and tough talk from both Romney and Obama.

For his part, Anderson seized on a remark commonly attributed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about wiping Israel "off the map."

"He never said it," Anderson said. "He referred to the regime in Israel one day being 'on the dustbin of history.' It is a misinterpretation, and it is so warmongering of both of these candidates to talk about how they will basically blow Iran away. Romney wants to impose crippling sanctions. Who would he be crippling? He'd be crippling, among others, some of the hundreds of thousands of people who stood in Tehran in a candlelight vigil in sympathy for the victims of the 9-11 attacks on the United States."

Watch Anderson and Stein's remarks, posted by Democracy Now on You Tube Tuesday, below.