Another week in Israel, another breathless media scandal.

This time, Israelis were told that Defense Minister Israel Katz had effectively humiliated and “fired” Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth live on air. The story exploded. Politicians reacted. Commentators thundered. Social media erupted.

And then, almost as quickly as it appeared, the story collapsed.

By now, the pattern should be familiar.

Israelis are subjected to an almost continuous barrage of scandals, one explosive story after another, each dominating the news cycle for a few hours or a day before fading away, often after its central claim has been disproved, radically qualified or exposed as nonsense.

Consider just a few examples from recent days.

We were told that MK Simcha Rothman had said the blood of brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, was somehow “redder” than the blood of the victims of Oct. 7.

We were told that Likud had deliberately produced a monstrous campaign video showing Gadi Eisenkot running toward his fallen son, only to have his son replaced by Israeli Arab politician Mansour Abbas.

We were told that Shin Bet chief David Zini had announced that he would be loyal only to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

We were told that Likud had ordered its Knesset members to photograph their ballots in the election for state comptroller.

The details change. The pattern does not.

Each scandal has a remarkably short but extremely noisy life cycle. Before one allegation can be properly examined, another takes its place. Then another. And another.

The cumulative effect resembles a kind of psychological carpet bombing: maintain a constant level of outrage, suspicion and negative emotional noise in the public consciousness.

There is a name for this method.

In 2016, RAND Corporation researchers Christopher Paul and Miriam........

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