What the heck is going on at Haaretz? If you believe some of the things being written about the paper on media Web sites here and abroad, it is nothing less than a political purge, a putsch, a deliberate weeding out of regular voices deemed too politically controversial.

Why? Because its target readership is no longer the left-wing intelligentsia and bourgeoisie, but the investor and entrepreneurial class that read (and advertise in) its successful sister business daily, The Marker, and prefer a Haaretz (in the words of one of its critics) "without Palestinians or the underprivileged."

As a result, according to this scenario, such writers as Meron Rappaport, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Danny Rubinstein and Akiva Eldar, who have focused much of their work on the Palestinian issue, have either been forced out, encouraged to leave the paper or have had their writing space reduced or marginalized.

In addition, reports recently …