What a row over sponsorship reveals about art and Mammon

Try as he might, Joe Biden struggles to restrain Binyamin Netanyahu. So it is doubtful that a British literary collective can have much sway over Israel’s prime minister. But though the group may not halt the war in Gaza—or mitigate climate change, its other avowed mission—it has performed one useful service. It has exposed the deep misconceptions that often feature in clashes over cultural funding: about power, morality and the exigencies of art.