The international community has a remarkably short attention span for a collection of institutions that can spend six months negotiating an adjective. When the subject is keeping people alive after the press conference, suddenly everyone has another appointment.

That is the obscenity in the Guardian's report on Gaza's shrinking food assistance. The World Food Programme has reduced monthly support from roughly 1.6 million people to 1.1 million after funding fell by more than half from 2025 levels. Promised reconstruction has not begun. Food aid is being reduced before people have a workable alternative.

I want the governments celebrating peace to remain interested in whether people can live through it. This should not require a second promotional campaign.

A ceasefire matters enormously. It is not a magic incantation that rebuilds a livelihood. You cannot announce that the emergency has moved into a more hopeful phase and expect the supplies to arrive through improved diplomatic vocabulary.

Yet the political attention economy rewards the announcement far more readily than the unglamorous obligation afterward. A leader can look decisive beside another leader. Looking decisive beside six months of funded food deliveries is more difficult, mostly because the deliveries insist on taking six months.

The cameras can leave. The funding shouldn't leave with them.

This is not a complaint about aid workers failing to perform miracles. It is a complaint about powerful people arranging a world in which miracles are repeatedly required, then reviewing their expense. The WFP is trying to manage a shortfall it cannot solve by becoming more committed. Commitment is not a substitute currency accepted by food suppliers.

The agency also warns that restoring money would not instantly restore deliveries; sourcing and shipping ration ingredients can take about three months. That is an especially good reason not to discover urgency only after the system has been cut. Governments capable of planning ceremonial visits months ahead should be capable of understanding a delivery lead time.

The dispute over restrictions on commercial goods entering Gaza concerns access. This new funding shortfall is a further obstacle, not evidence that access restrictions have become harmless or that every earlier dispute is resolved. You do not fix a blocked supply line by also running it out of money.

And the personal politics surrounding Trump's endorsement of Netanyahu are a miserable substitute for judging what policy delivers to civilians. Friendly relationships at the top do not constitute a reconstruction program. A handshake is a particularly inefficient piece of building equipment.

Donor governments should finance sustained assistance while pressing for the access and rebuilding that would make it less necessary. Not indefinite dependency, and certainly not the fantasy that withdrawing support creates independence. Removing the bridge does not teach people to fly.

There is no shortage of powerful people willing to take credit for a turning point. Let them demonstrate the turn. Until families can reliably obtain food and rebuild their lives, the peace celebration should remain unfinished business—not an achievement everyone else is expected to survive on.