Dr. Jonathan Schanzer is a former counterterrorism analyst, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is not entirely hopeful that the recent Israel-Hamas agreement will be a step toward regional peace.

“You’re not going to hear me call this peace,” he said on Oct. 16 at Beth Tfiloh High School. “It’s not peace; it’s a cease-fire — with an organization that, with an Islamic republic in Iran and all its proxies, still wants to wage war against Israel.”

Schanzer spoke during a question-and-answer session after the showing of the documentary “October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre,” an event run in collaboration with the Baltimore Zionist District.

Schanzer’s candid assessment of what has been hailed by some as a major breakthrough for peace in Israel came after close to 100 people watched the graphic, blunt “Bearing Witness to the Massacre” documentary.

Richard Grilli is a Jewish man whose daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live in Israel. He said that, as hard as the film was to watch, it was necessary.

“It’s sobering,” he said. “When I first heard about the attacks, it was obvious, based on the body count that was coming in on the TV right away, that Israel was caught totally by surprise. And that’s what really hit me.”

Rita Blaut is a Baltimorean who was in attendance to see the film and listen to Schanzer speak, three days before she and her husband were due to depart for Israel. She said that the behind-the-scenes insight that Schanzer brings is crucial, and that a point he made about Israel needing support from its neighbors resonated with her.

“We’re simple citizens, even with as much as I read and I listen,” she said. “I agree 100% with what he said about the Arab countries owing it to their own people and to the Palestinians in Gaza. They owe it to them to stand against Hamas. Hamas yesterday was on the news; they shot people of their own.”

Schanzer noted that, last month, Israeli jets struck at Hamas leaders in Qatar, a state sponsor of Hamas.

“In my view … I believe that was when we began to see the cease-fire come into the picture. In other words, what happened there was that the Qataris for the last two years thought that they could be the sponsors, the financiers, the people who sheltered Hamas far from the war zone, and they thought they were safe,” Schanzer said. “They thought the Israelis would never hold them to account. But on Sept. 9, the Israelis scrambled their jets, flew them 1,000 miles across the Middle East and bombed the place that the Qataris never thought they would touch.”

Schanzer postulated that this led to the Qataris going to President Donald Trump and asking for security guarantees, which he thinks Trump said the United States could provide if Qatar, as Schanzer said, “delivers Hamas.”

David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, although he attended the event as a spectator, not as a colleague of Schanzer’s. He said that what Schanzer said was “on message.”

“He had some great insights, and I thought it was very important for this audience to hear,” May said.

Janet Zeliger, a former public school teacher from Toronto who is visiting Baltimore, attended the event. She said she thinks that Qatar’s influence in Western culture is an issue that was appropriately highlighted by Schanzer, who said that the FDD has identified $225 billion that Qatar has invested in various companies and institutions in the United States, although the foundation believes that amount is only about one-fifth of the true total.

Zeliger added that the documentary should be shown to students everywhere. She likened its importance to teaching about the Holocaust, and recalled a quote from President Dwight Eisenhower that she finds applicable.

“Get it all on record now … because somewhere down the road someone will say that this never happened,” Zeliger recalled Eisenhower saying.

Part of the documentary featured an interview with former hostage Ada Sagi, who was freed after being held captive for nearly two months in Gaza. She recounted her story bravely, but was clearly still affected by the atrocities she saw and experienced. Sagi remembers everything very precisely: She started her story by saying, “I was kidnapped at 9:27 a.m.”

Those in attendance were in agreement that the documentary was a hard watch. However, Schanzer’s message ended with a bit of hope. After the room came together to sing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, the mood was lifted.

“Israel’s fighting its war of independence. It has been since 1948. Eight decades now of nonstop war. What I am heartened by right now is that Israel has faced its darkest hour … and it did not collapse. It picked itself up,” Schanzer said. “Right now, I am looking at a country that is looking at nothing less than trying to transform the Middle East into a neighborhood where they can live for centuries to come. Let’s hope they do it.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com