Hillary Clinton takes gefilte fish challenge

A newly released email from then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton shows her intervening in a row over the US export to Israel of a key ingredient in the traditional Jewish dish of gefilte fish.

The email has the subject line “Gefilte fish,” and the body of the email reads: “Where are we on this?”

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/638527713112932352

An explanation comes from former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, who writes in his recently published memoir:

“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. 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…

“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,’ Secretary of State Clinton blithely told reporters. ‘I’m dealing with carp!’ Netanyahu called to question me, ‘What’s all this carp stuff?'”