Captain Renault, meet President Herzog

It’s time to go beyond being merely shocked – but not for a stroll into the foggy night with a non-existent friend

Capt. Renault (Claude Rains, right) expresses his disbelief to Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in the film classic ‘Casablanca’.

Isaac Herzog, Israel’s entirely ceremonial president, took to X after Hamas released three more hostages on Saturday.

“This is what a crime against humanity looks like! The whole world must look directly at Ohad, Or, and Eli – returning after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained – being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers.”

Herzog might as well have staunchly declared “I’m shocked. Shocked!” But channeling an inner Capt. Renault apparently was too much, so he reverted to the usual bumbling bumpkin.

“We take solace in the fact that they are being returned alive to the arms of their loved ones”

Solace? We should be grateful! Thrilled! Bouncing around the skies!

Well, at least he hinted at his true j’accuse.

“Completing the hostage deal is a humanitarian, moral, and Jewish duty,” Herzog writes. “It is essential to bring back all our sisters and brothers from the hell of captivity in Gaza — every last one of them!”

The only sign of the yammering yokel’s target is the word “Jewish.” But his barb was entirely rounded and decidedly lacking in poison.

The president’s father might well be rolling in the ground right now.

CHAIM HERZOG was also a president of Israel and, like his son, tended to be colorless. But as ambassador to the United Nations, he made his mark in 1975 by standing angrily at the podium and, with a great flourish, ripping up the text of the world body’s infamous “Zionism is racism” resolution.

It was more theater than fruitful diplomacy, but he made his point and will be warmly remembered.

In fact, as I cock my ear toward Jerusalem and the Great Leaders of the Nation section on Mount Herzl, I can almost hear Chaim’s Irish lilt.

“Isaac, you milquetoast! Find something to rip up! Show some spittle! Ditch the parve! Decide already whether the dish is milk or meat and dig in! And then heave it! In the right direction!”

Poor Chaim. He’s also probably stealing a glance in the direction of his predecessor’s grave up there on the mount.

Unlike the professional soldier that Chaim Herzog was, Yitzhak Navon made his mark as a scholar, author and playwright. Yet he, too, knew when to unleash the anger.

“In 1982, then-president Yitzhak Navon threatened to resign should the government fail to establish a national commission of inquiry into the Sabra and Shatila massacres committed by Israel’s allies in South Lebanon,” the journalist and political analyst Shalom Yerushalmi wrote in The Times of Israel.

“In the end, prime minister Menahem Begin relented and appointed such a commission, with actual powers, that went on to oust then-defense minister Ariel Sharon.”

Several paragraphs prior to that, Yerushalmi wrote: “[Isaac] Herzog is the only person who can counteract what he too has come to recognize as a looming catastrophe. But in order to do so, the president, who has been urging dialogue that can only amount to nothing, must stop hiding behind soft-spoken intimations and take a principled stand.”

Interestingly, these words were written in January 2023, well before Ohad Ben Ami, Or Levi and Eli Sharabi found themselves among the more-than 250 people dragged off to the Gaza Strip by Hamas members and other Gazans on October 7.

Yerushalmi was lamenting the fact that the president had refused to take a strong stand on the way the Likud-led, lightning-like legislation aimed at neutering the country’s judiciary was tearing the country apart – something most everyone agrees led Hamas to conclude that Israel was ripe for attack.

Say what you want about Begin’s politics, he was a man of principle. Not so the current tenant on Balfour Street. Nope. Principle is nowhere to be found.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his racist, end-times coalition gleefully tore this country apart. He and they were asleep at the wheel, yet the prime minister, together with his poodles, crooks and scalawags, continues to block a full and independent commission of inquiry into the causes of October 7 and its aftermath – especially those of the political stripe.

Such an inquiry would seek answers as to why Netanyahu has yet to reveal his plans for the so-called day after (boneheaded pitches for a Gazan Riviera notwithstanding) and, more important, why he’s been throwing wrench after wrench into the talks aimed at bringing all the hostages home.

MISTER PRESIDENT, stop whining. Ditch the milquetoast bit. There is zero leadership in this country.

Say so. Loudly. Unequivocally. And then fall on your sword if you have to.

Don’t walk off into that foggy night like Renault and Rick. There will never be a beautiful friendship. Only a country bereft of morals and hope.