Carter Map Update

Thanks to American Footprints, American Thinker, Atlas Shrugs, Boker tov, Boulder!, CAMERA, Daily Kos, David Frum, Elder of Zion, Gateway Pundit, Hang Right Politics, The Hedgehog Blog, Hyscience, Infotainment Rules, Lucianne, NRO’s Media Blog, The New Republic, Old War Dogs, On the Radar, Pajamas Media, Power Line, Soccer Dad, Uncorrelated, Wizblog and others for linking to “Carter’s Maps:  Worse Than Plagiarism.” 

CAMERA has an excellent listing of the principal articles that have appeared on Carter’s book (to which I would add those by Rich Lowry, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Michael Kinsley).

Marty Peretz wrote that the JCI post “proves -- yes, proves -- that [Carter] plagiarized and distorted other people’s work.”  Carter’s distortion is in fact beyond dispute.  The labels on his maps are false, the comparison involved in placing the two maps adjacent to each other on a single page is egregiously false, and the text describing the import of the Clinton Parameters and the Israeli response to them is not even close to correct.   

The issue of plagiarism is more complicated.  There is no doubt about the ultimate derivation of the maps:  Media Blog placed Carter’s map on top of Ross’s map to graphically demonstrate that it is in all material respects identical (except it was mislabeled and a critical explanatory note was omitted), and the second Carter map is virtually identical to another Ross map (with Ross’s detail and explanatory note omitted, and an incorrect title used).  But how Carter got the maps could bear some further investigation, in view of his confusing explanations to date.

Carter asserts he has “never seen” Ross’s book (an assertion CAMERA says is either unbelievable or disqualifying).  In his book, Carter thanks cartographer Paul Pugliese for preparing the maps.  But in Newsweek, Carter said the maps are “derived from an atlas that was published in 2004 in Jerusalem and it was basically produced under the aegis of officials in Sweden.” 

CNN reported it “tried to contact the firm that Carter says he got those maps from, it's called the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem, to see if they got those maps from Dennis Ross.  We were unable to reach that company.” 

The Applied Research Institute has a website that lists a publication entitled “A Geopolitical Atlas of Palestine (October 2004).  The website includes a “detailed list of all the maps included within the updated version.”  The titles indicate the Institute is applying its research to serve a less-than-scholarly agenda:  Of the 37 maps listed, 11 refer to the “Segregation Wall” or “Segregation Plan;” another 9 refer to Israeli “Colonization” or “Colonies,” and still others purport to be maps of the “Strangulation of Bethlehem” or “Israel’s Illegal Practices.”  The Institute appears to be Palestinian; in any event, there is no reference on the website to any “officials in Sweden” involved with either the Institute or its atlas. 

One cannot tell from the website whether the Institute’s atlas contains versions of Ross’s maps; whether (if so) the versions were mislabeled and misdescribed by the Institute or someone else; whether (assuming the Institute is the source of the maps), the Institute gave Carter permission to use them; and (if so) why Carter decided not to disclose the source of his maps or otherwise provide readers a basis for judging their credibility. 

But it is possible that Carter has a defense to plagiarism, although it might present even bigger problems.