The Hidden Hand in Seaboard Review of Books

...by Chris Reed, here.

"Shrewd...Kinsella is keenly alert to the strange convergence of the far right and radical left, which share a rhetoric that denies Jewish legitimacy.

The Hidden Hand traces how the nation’s demographics, vulnerability to foreign interference, institutional weakness and political reluctance have left it badly exposed. A country that prides itself on pluralism, Kinsella argues, has become disturbingly susceptible to anti-Jewish intimidation and foreign propaganda.

The sheer volume and variety of material Kinsella gathers is almost daunting. What keeps it from becoming a catalogue of outrage is his instinct for character and story.

When Kinsella follows the money, the connections he has assembled click into place. He traces how funds intended for benign or progressive purposes can move through institutions and end up supporting anti-Israel activism. The result is politically grotesque: Western organizations committed to pluralism, queer rights or social justice wind up adjacent to messaging that serves the interests of Iran, Hamas and other forces openly hostile to those values...."