Hillary Clinton's 'gefilte fish' email isn't as ridiculous as it sounds

(Image credit: Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

published 1 September 2015

At first glance, this Hillary Clinton email released in the latest State Department dump would be enough to leave anyone more than a bit baffled.

So why, exactly, was the then-U.S. secretary of state so worried about a fish dish? Turns out, back in February 2010, the shipment of nearly 400,000 pounds of frozen Asian carp fillets — an essential ingredient for gefilte fish — had been blocked by Israel ahead of the Passover holiday. Israel had slapped a 120 percent import duty on the American-caught fish that were supposed to be sent over to the Holy Land. The crates of fish were stranded, and the appearance of gefilte fish on the Seder table was in serious jeopardy.