Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton face off in the first presidential debate. Photo: screenshot.

During the first US presidential debate on Monday night, Democratic contender Hillary Clinton articulated her party’s positions clearly, while defending the Obama administration’s policies that she helped forge and implement.

One topic absent from the verbal boxing match between Clinton and her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, was Israel. This may or may not have been intentional on the part of moderator Lester Holt, who asked a general question about American security. Whether the candidates purposely avoided the subject is also unclear. But what Clinton said about the Islamic Republic of Iran was plain as day.

She claimed that when she was secretary of state, Iran was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. To confront this threat, she boasted, she was instrumental in imposing the sanctions that “brought” the ayatollahs to the negotiating table. Finally, she asserted, America achieved a deal that “put the lid” on Iran’s nuclear program. Such, she crowed, is the stuff that “diplomacy” and “coalition-building” are made of.

This echoed what she is reported to have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday in New York City, where the two met in the aftermath of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a statement released by her office after the tete-a-tete, Clinton said she would “enforce” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement signed in July 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 powers, led by the United States.

She failed to mention that the JCPOA isn’t worth the paper on which it was written; that secret addenda provide loopholes for Iranian military operations; that billions of dollars in cash and gold were transferred clandestinely to Tehran in exchange for the release of American hostages, among other things; and that Iran has already violated several clauses that actually do appear in the document.

Which brings us to Clinton’s successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, the key negotiator of the disastrous deal in question.

Kerry, who kept his mouth shut while his counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif, shouted at him during every summit, has no problem whatsoever berating the Jewish state.

As Haaretz reported on Sunday, at a meeting last week of nations that fund the Palestinian Authority, Kerry chastised Israel.

“How does increasing the number of settlers indicate an attempt to create a Palestinian state?” he was quoted as saying. “The status quo is not sustainable. So either we mean it and we act on it, or we should shut up… The consequences of the current trends reverberate far beyond the immediate damage the destruction and displacement may cause. What’s happening today destroys hope. It empowers extremists.”

As a master at bolstering radical Islamists — whose proudly stated goal is to destroy America and Israel — Kerry knows exactly what he’s talking about. Indeed, as he has so adeptly illustrated, the very best way to guarantee a victory for one’s enemies is to cower before — and kowtow to – them. This has been Obama’s credo from the minute he stepped foot in the Oval Office, and it will be the legacy he leaves behind.

Judging by her performance on the stage at Hofstra University on Monday night, Clinton is raring to pick up the ball and run with it, if given the chance to occupy the White House.

Ruthie Blum is the managing editor of The Algemeiner.