Clinton gefilte fish email is carrot atop trove

A newly declassified email from 2010 written by then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton boasts the curious subject line “Gefilte fish,” with the body of the message reading simply: “Where are we on this?”

An elaborate explanation for the strange email was offered by former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, who explained that the backstory to the text concerns Clinton’s intervention in a flap over the US export to Israel of a key ingredient in the traditional Jewish dish.

“America signed its first-ever free-trade agreement with Israel back in 1985, but the treaty exempted certain Israeli products liable to be eradicated by their cheaper American counterparts,” Oren wrote in his recently published memoir.

The dispute was sparked when an Illinois fishery asked Clinton to get involved in allowing in carp, which was subject to a hefty tariff making exports to Israel almost impossible.

“Apples, avocados, and oranges fell into this category, and, so, too, did the carp cultivated by Galilean farmers. Which is why four hundred thousand pounds of the frozen fish were denied entry into the Promised Land…”

A compromise offered by Israel after politicians got involved — to let in two containers of fish tax free for each one that had full tax paid on it — was rejected by the American firm, according to a Haaretz report from the time.

“I thought Israel should make this one exception, and told that to the Ministers of Trade and Finance. … ‘You think finding Middle East peace is hard,’ Clinton blithely told reporters then. ‘I’m dealing with carp!’ [Prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu called to question me, ‘What’s all this carp stuff?’”