Food & Wine mag honors Reem’s Oakland restaurant, ignores wall-sized mural of terrorist
Narrative that Reem’s stands for “food as a vehicle for healing” ignores open glorification of supermarket bomber and killer Rasmea Odeh
Food & Wine magazine recently released its Restaurants of the Year 2018.
The article, by F&W Restaurant Editor Jordanna Rothman, includes Reem’s of Oakland, CA. In the introduction to the article, Rothman notes: “At Reem’s in Oakland, California, I was moved by Reem Assil, a Syrian and Palestinian chef who uses food to cultivate understanding for the Arab experience in America.”
The review of Reem’s goes far beyond the menu or food preparation, and focuses heavily on the atmosphere at the restaurant. The review states, in part (emphasis added):
Food as a vehicle for healing is at the center of everything here. Assil has roots in the local foods movement of the Bay Area—Reem’s started out as a farmers market stand. And so the produce is local, the meat from nearby halal butchers. The dough for those man’oushe breads gets its tang from a Tartine Bakery starter and may be topped with cumin from Burlap & Barrel, a company emphasizing ethical sourcing in Afghanistan, Palestine, and elsewhere.
At a moment when touchstones of Middle Eastern cuisine like tahini and pomegranate molasses appear on menus all over the country, Reem’s offers an opportunity to see those flavors, often attributed to Israel, through a wider lens, one inclusive of the Arab perspective. “I wanted to cultivate understanding in the most humane way possible—through food,” says Assil, who makes her case with orange blossom–scented cookies, spinach pastries spiced with cinnamon and sumac, and warm flatbread bundling sujuk sausage. “I look around my restaurant on a Saturday afternoon. I see Jews and Arabs eating together. I see people who are not politicized just enjoying a meal. And I think, this is what peace looks like.”
In a tweet, Rothman said she was “[s]o moved by this place <3” in response to a food critic quoting the line from the review that “[f]ood as a vehicle for healing is at the center of everything here.”
There is one problem with this Food & Wine narrative of Reem’s as a place of healing and peace.
One very big problem.
A problem so big it takes up an entire wall in Restaurant at Reem’s, right up front in a highly visible place. Reem’s has a wall-sized mural of convicted terrorist killer Rasmea Odeh.
[Wall Mural of Rasmea Odeh at Reem’s Oakland, April 15, 2018]
[Image via Jerusalem Post, used with permission]
The mural of Rasmea Odeh is central to Reem Assil’s political outlook, which includes a history of anti-Israel activism. The controversy over the mural received widespread publicity, and Assil defended the mural:
For Assil, who is of Palestinian-Syrian descent, “[Odeh] embodies the resilience of Arab women fighting for justice in this country. She is an elder to a lot of us younger women who are activists and want to do right among our community,” said Assil, who compares Odeh to a modern day Malcom X….”
We have documented dozens of times the overwhelming evidence of Rasmea’s participation in the bombing, her prison sentence in Israel and then release in a prisoner exchange, and how Rasmea lied on her visa and naturalization papers to unlawfully gain entry to and citizenship in the U.S. In September 2017, after a guilty plea, Rasmea was deported and stripped of her citizenship.
In her plea deal to immigration fraud, Odeh admitted that the centerpiece of her defense, that she falsely filled out the immigration forms due to PTSD resulting from torture, was not true. Indeed, as we documented, Rasmea’s claim of a torture induced confession was inconsistent with the demonstrable record. You can get an overview of the history in my post and video interview, The Lies of Rasmea Odeh and Her Supporters Exposed:
Rather than creating a place where difficult conversations could be had, owner Reem Assil tried to shut down peaceful protests outside the restaurant:
- Anti-Israel activists try to shut down protests over California bakery honoring Palestinian terrorist
- Reem’s Oakland bakery seeks Ct order halting protests over terrorist mural
- Vigils continue for Rasmea Odeh’s victims outside Reem’s Oakland Bakery despite legal threats
- Reem’s Oakland Bakery Drops Lawsuit to Silence Protests Against Mural of Terrorist Rasmea Odeh
So why wasn’t the celebration of a convicted terrorist murderer mentioned in the Food & Wine article?
I emailed both the author Rothman and Food & Wine’s media relations, but as of this writing have not received a response:
I noticed that you posted a review of Reem’s, and included it on the list of Top Restaurants of the Year, but didn’t mention the large mural of supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh on the wall. Is there a reason that was not mentioned at all, since you went beyond a straight food review and commented on how Reem “understood food as a potent tool for empathy and connection.” You also quoted her as saying “I see people who are not politicized just enjoying a meal. And I think, this is what peace looks like.” Would seem that if you are presenting Reem’s as a non-political place that promotes understanding, it would be relevant that there is a mural of a convicted murderer on the wall.
I’m writing about this for tonight, so if you could respond this afternoon that would be great.
I also tweeted a response to the tweet (above) hearting Reem’s:
It’s not necessary, or even desirable, that restaurant reviews go into the politics of the owner. Politics does not have to infuse every aspect of our lives.
Food & Wine, nonetheless, decided to make Reem Assil’s politics the centerpiece of the review and one of the main reasons Reem’s was put on the prestigious list of Favorite Restaurants 2018. That portrayal, however, was sanitized.
Food & Wine ignored the elephant in the room, or rather, the mural on the wall.
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Terrorism is one reason not to patronize a Muslim restaurant. Cleanliness is the other. Reading the Koranic sections on cleanliness would leave a pig disgusted.
“Ignores”?
That is a feature, not a disqualifier….
“Food & Wine, nonetheless, decided to make Reem Assil’s politics the centerpiece of the review and one of the main reasons Reem’s was put on the prestigious list of Favorite Restaurants 2018. That portrayal, however, was sanitized.”
Oakland ain’t the garden spot of, well, anywhere. My question is the restaurant truly that excellent? The magazine plainly states its fare ‘appear on menus all over the country.’ What’s so special about Reem’s? Or does the magazine aspire to meet some vague ‘immigrant owned restaurant quota because intersectionality makes us cool’ horsecrap and we can sell to an overseas market?
That’s fine, I guess, if they were simply honest about it, but the editors are probably leftists, so the magazine raves about a place that glorifies a convicted murderer and liar, instead.
Really. And if so, there are some Chinese seafood restaurants and some Thai restaurants with original and gourmet fare that deserve the title.
We have more muslim culture and immigrants now than we did before 9/11.
That would not be possible in a SANE world.
Made a poster that exposes Reems and Odeh, in addition to remembering the victims, but have no idea how to show in a comment, if at all.
Another magazine not to read.
In charity to Ms Rothman, perhaps she had no idea whom the mural portrayed, and assumed it was just a generic Arab woman, or perhaps some relative of the owner.
If I had never heard of Che Guevara, then from his picture’s ubiquity I’d have assumed he was either some sort of movie star or else a clothing model; it would never occur to me that he was a bloodthirsty serial killer.
I can not be so charitable to Ms Rothman. Since she, and the owner/chef Reem Assil, have chosen to make this political it is inexcusable for Rothman to fail to do her due diligence.
The food is political? So is the damned mural. That is clearly not a “generic” Arab woman. That is clearly a specific individual, whose image is painted on the wall for a reason.
Frankly, the only reason anti-American pro-Jihad Sharia supremacists continue to get away with it is because there is a vast swath of people who really, really want to be lied to. All of America should have been outraged by that Imam who spoke at the Boston bombing memorial service. Recall he said:
“…whoever kills a soul … it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely…”
The Imam mentioned that the above is “from the Jewish tradition.” This is an example of two of the divinely sanctioned forms of lying Islam; kitman, lying by omission, and tauriya, using words that one has assigned secret double meanings so that the non-Muslims will understand one message while Muslims will get an entirely different message.
I am often accused of taking things out of context by Islamic apologists, Muslim and their non-Muslim “useful infidels,” who know damned well I’m not. I am happy to provide as much context as anyone could want (more than they want, usually) but the liars will continue to pretend there is some context that would make the violence in the vile ideology of Islam entirely peaceful. Some context that when challenged, they just can’t tell you what it is, but since the useful infidels desperately cling to the hope that “true Islam” is the one of their wishful-thinking imaginations that cooing, seductive lie is good enough for them.
But here is a classic example of how no one can rival Muslim anti-Americans for taking the Quran out of context.
Note, when the Imam (and pols like Barack Obama or Tony Blair or David Cameron) cite the above they never cite the Surah (chapter) and Ayah (verse) number. Because if they did, people might look it up and discover that not only are they cherry picking a phrase out of a much large verse, they’re also discarding inconvenient parts of that phrase.
Sarah 5:32 (I’ve capitalized the selected parts the fraudsters
“”
I can not be so charitable to Ms Rothman. Since she, and the owner/chef Reem Assil, have chosen to make this political it is inexcusable for Rothman to fail to do her due diligence.
The food is political? So is the damned mural. That is clearly not a “generic” Arab woman. That is clearly a specific individual, whose image is painted on the wall for a reason. Rothman may not know the reason, but if she doesn’t it is because she is deliberately averting her eyes from the truth. In other words, she knows where the truth lies and therefore where not to look.
Frankly, the only reason anti-American pro-Jihad Sharia supremacists continue to get away with it is because there is a vast swath of people who really, really want to be lied to. All of America should have been outraged by that Imam who spoke at the Boston bombing memorial service. Recall he said:
“…whoever kills a soul … it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely…”
The Imam mentioned that the above is “from the Jewish tradition.” This is an example of two of the divinely sanctioned forms of lying Islam; kitman, lying by omission, and tauriya, using words that one has assigned secret double meanings so that the non-Muslims will understand one message while Muslims will get an entirely different message.
I am often accused of taking things out of context by Islamic apologists, Muslim and their non-Muslim “useful infidels,” who know damned well I’m not. I am happy to provide as much context as anyone could want (more than they want, usually) but the liars will continue to pretend there is some context that would make the violence in the vile ideology of Islam entirely peaceful. Some context that when challenged, they just can’t tell you what it is, but since the useful infidels desperately cling to the hope that “true Islam” is the one of their wishful-thinking imaginations that cooing, seductive lie is good enough for them.
But here is a classic example of how no one can rival Muslim anti-Americans for taking the Quran out of context.
Note, when the Imam (and pols like Barack Obama or Tony Blair or David Cameron) cite the above they never cite the Surah (chapter) and Ayah (verse) number. Because if they did, people might look it up and discover that not only are they cherry picking a phrase out of a much large verse, they’re also discarding inconvenient parts of that phrase.
Sarah 5:32 (I’ve capitalized the few selected words of this verse that the fraudsters deceptively cite)
“Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that WHOEVER KILLS A SOUL unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – IT IS AS IF HE HAD SLAIN MANKIND ENTIRELY. AND WHOEVER SAVES ONE – IT IS AS IF HE HAD SAVED MANKIND ENTIRELY. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.”
Note that this has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims; it’s a command for the Jews. And note the exceptions. The “Children of Israel” were supposed to kill people for certain reasons; murder (a soul for a soul) and for the vague “catch all” sin of of spreading “corruption in the land.” Allah explains that his problem with those disobedient Jews is they didn’t kill enough people. Despite sending messengers with “clear proofs” many transgressors “throughout the land” were allowed to live and spread corruption.
So Allah gave the Muslims an even clearer command in the next verse, with a message that unlike those evil Jews the Muslims would have no excuses for ignoring.
Surah 5:33
“Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment,”
We aren’t talking about the ignorance of youth. We are talking about an unforgivable willful blindness. We see this throughout society. I may seem to wander away from the topic as I’m going to talk about Dawah and interfaith dialogue, but since Islam does not separate Mosque from state Muslims (particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, heretofore the MB) uses the exact same techniques when subverting every institution they come into contact with that they regard vital to bending to their will to achieve their goal. So it’s the same playbook when they are subverting western media, religious institutions, and governments. Recall the document “AN EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM ON THE GENERAL STRATEGIC GOAL FOR THE GROUP IN NORTH AMERICA” which was entered into evidence in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial about ten years back (Government Exhibit 003-0085 3:04-CR-240-G in U.S. v Holy Land Foundation, et al.).It spells everything out very clearly.
“The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilizati
on from within and ‘sabotaging’ ts miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The MB, or ikhwan, has to keep people ignorant of their source of motivation and of their goals. This is most easily accomplished when people like Rothman desperately want to remain ignorant. So now that about ten years have passed since the HLF terror funding trial they’ve accelerated their gaslighting operations. Despite the fact the document met evidentiary standards to be used in a federal judicial proceeding and wasn’t even challenged by the defense they are conducting a media blitz to convince their useful infidels that the memorandum has been thoroughly discredited as just the musings of one individual and is no way part of an organized program and only an Islamophobic racist bigot would say otherwise.
And media types like Rothman don’t want to be labeled Islamophobic racist bigots, do they. No, they want to help their seducers do the labeling. They’re in love.
Of course, a few inconvenient facts keep popping up. Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 the Bush admin asked the Bush admin asked the Swiss to raid Youssef Nada’s villa in Campione, which the Swiss did in November. Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, has had an active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and has admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. Guess what the Swiss found? Another explanatory memorandum very similar, almost identical, to the one US law enforcement found in the sub basement of an MB safe house in Virginia. But this one wasn’t confined to a single continent. It outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth” and is simply known in intel, natsec, and counter terror law enforcement circles as “the Project.” But it was being followed by the MB and their front groups in Europe, just as the explanatory memorandum accurately described the actions of the various MB front groups in North America.
Coincidence? Various MB front groups listed as MB front groups in the explanatory memorandum such as the Council on American Islamic Relations, The Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust, etc., etc., hope everyone will believe that. But no, both memeranda derive from the same source; Sayyid Qutb’s milestones formula. Sayyid Qutb is a name everyone should know. He was the the MB’s chief theorist in Egypt. The mothership. He was arrested in 1956 and imprisoned until 1966 when the Egyptian government executed him as the terrorist he was. But in the meantime he wrote two books that guide the actions of every terrorist organization that have come along since. In The Shade Of The Quran goes through the Quran verse by verse and exegetes it, applying each verse to conditions in the latter half of the twentieth century. And consequently adapts the Quran to the needs of the modern jihadist. The second is Milestones. You can get it used from Amazon for next to nothing. It’s not a long book; it is essentially a condensed version of the MB’s global program. Sort of like the memoranda found in Switzerland and Virginia. I think the word that most accurately describes the MB front groups’ attempts, most notably CAIR’s, attempts to gaslight the world and make it sound like a wing nut insane conspiracy theory that they’d follow their own strategic plan is chutzpah. It’s as if you discovered GM’s long term corporate strategy, found that it explained Chevy, Cadillac’s, and GMC’s market behavior, and they accused you of being crazy if you’d even dare accuse the GM subsidiaries of conspiring with GM to sell cars.
Really, it’s nothing original. Muhammad followed the same plan. There are three stages of Dawah. “Pen,” “Scales,” and “Sword.” When Muhammad was in Mecca and powerless, he used the pen. I.e. verbal persuasion to proselytize and bring people to Islam. When he migrated to Medinah and gained political power he entered the “scales” stage. These are the scales of justice; in Islamic terms that means implementing what are now known as Sharia laws. Such as demanding halal meat in schools, hospitals, and prisons. Demanding restrictions on free speech, criminalizing any speech critical of Islam if possible. Demanding separate Sharia courts.
The sword phase means the time for talking is over. The Banu Qurayza tribe, the last of three Jewish tribes in Medinah after Muhammad had already ejected the others found out when Muhammad forced the men to dig trenches after they failed to support him in a battle against the Meccans. Then Muhammad and his followers slit their throats and on the edge of the mass graves they had just dug. An he took their wives as sex slaves and enslaved their children.
None of this is hard to unerstand. In fact, you have to try extremely hard not to understand it. But our spineless political and religious leaders are up to the task. The latter includes both Christians and Jews, who have been brow beaten into taking the position that criticizing or even mentioning Muslim oppression of religious minorities based upon Islamic teachings is an act of hate and Islamophobia. The former, our pols, have given us too many examples of “no Islam to see here, move along” following every single Islamic terror attack.
But make no mistake; when it comes to the press even a lowly restaurant critic is yearning to show she’s such a good person she can ignore a mural that covers an entire wall that pays homage to a terrorist.
The only thing I can compare it too is a middle aged or elderly man or woman falling in love with the supermodel of their dreams. Of course, this isn’t an actual supermodel but the most handsome or beautiful con artist ever to be released form prison and needing to score a jackpot. You could try if you like and sit the old fool down and just look at the bank statements that show their accounts rapidly being drained and the convicted felon con artists accounts filling up at the same rates.
The real world analogues are the Islamic canonical texts, the various authoritative commentaries, etc.
The old fools will not thank you for showing them how badly they are being ripped off. They’ll hate you for it. Likewise, Rothman is an active, willing participant in her own stubborn, intentional ignorance.
No, I can’t be charitable. The only reason Food & Wine chose Reem’s restaurant is to demonstrate how Woke they are, how down with the cause.
Sorry for the partial duplicate post. Every once in a while my browser acts up like I hit the back arrow. So I just hit the forward arrow and there everything is in the comment window.
This is the first time anything actually posted.
A couple of other observations to note how I can’t be charitable as Rothman is a willing participant in deliberately remaining in her state of not knowing.
“At a moment when touchstones of Middle Eastern cuisine like tahini and pomegranate molasses appear on menus all over the country, Reem’s offers an opportunity to see those flavors, often attributed to Israel, through a wider lens, one inclusive of the Arab perspective.”
Jordanna Rothman craves SJW approval so she helpfully passes along a message from Reem Assil. The evil Jooooz didn’t just steal the poor brown indigenous’ land, they stole their damned food as well. Which is why Palestinian children are starving, the Zionists stole their food right out of their mouths!
“…food as a vehicle for healing…”
Do you think it will ever dawn on Jordanna Rothman to ask Reem Assil, just what kind of food, exactly, heals the shrapnel wounds from a Muslim suicide terrorist’s nail bombs?
The quote re save a life / destroy a life: FYI, is not Quran-originating but “thefted”: here is the source – https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talmud – which shouldn’t be surprising, since the location of Islam’s “birth” was a heavily Jewish region.
What if Ms Odeh’s mirror image set off 2 large bombs during the busy time in this terrorist tea house? Would it be performance art, or preventative justice?
It would be a mercy killing. Who can possibly enjoy a meal with a giant painting of that crone staring down at you?
Only a really sick camper, that’s who.