The Israeli newspaper scene, like its U.S. counterpart, is reeling from multiple shocks.  After 64 years in circulation, Maariv is on death's door.  Even more worrisome, at least from the perspective of the New York Times, is a drastic slimdown of Haaretz, a small but highly influential ultra-left paper that has been bleeding more and more red ink. In an Oct. 5 dispatch to the Times, Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner reports that for the first time in three decades, Haaretz ceased publication for a day because of an employees' strike against sharp job cuts.  In introducing Haaretz to her readers, she describes it fondly as "the flagship broadsheet of Israel's left-wing intelligentsia." That it is, but there's more to Haaretz than Kershner lets on.  For one thing, this is a newspaper that has inflicted untold damage to Israel's security because correspondents of Western media in Israel quote it more than any other news source.  If you're a reader of the...(Read Full Post)