It’s way past time for mainstream news outlets to stop referring to the “flotillas” mounted against Israel’s blockade of Gaza as “aid ships.” They are nothing of the sort, a truth amply demonstrated with the latest attempt by a Jewish group to run the blockade with a catamaran. The catamaran Irene has a length of 33 feet, which makes it smaller than the famous 42-foot Boghammar speedboat used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. With crew and passengers totaling nine people, this little catamaran can’t possibly have carried much cargo. In photos of its encounter with the Israeli navy (see it here flanked by Israeli inflatable patrol boats), it looks absurdly small. In fact, it looks downright silly — a perfect emblem of the irresponsible ineffectiveness of this type of parlor-activism.

Actual “aid” to Gaza comes in the form of regular deliveries from Israel. These deliveries are never interrupted for long, in spite of the provocation of rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli civilians. The would-be blockade busters, however, bring very little in the way of goods. What they do bring can even be counterproductive, as evident from the complaints among Gazan doctors about expired medical supplies, a cargo notably carried by the Turkish-led flotilla in May.

The attempts to break the blockade are aimed at Israel and its requirement for security. They are not aid efforts. Their objective is to compromise Israel’s ability to keep weapons out of the hands of Hamas. It’s time for the Western media to stop retailing the fictional narrative that they have anything to do with humanitarian aid.