• The European Union joined the United States in imposing its own, especially tough sanctions on Iran, particularly targeting its energy sector. [Ynet]

• The former head of the main Syrian synagogue in Deal, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering charges. [APP]

• James Besser speaks out against the practice of tethering affirmation or denial of the Armenian genocide to Turkey’s behavior. [Political Insider]

This has been my favorite goal of the World Cup Finals so far: Brazil’s first against North Korea yesterday (Brazil won 2-1).

• The New Jersey Star-Ledger was one of three finalists (though not the victor) for the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the corruption scandal stemming from the state’s Syrian Jewish community. [Pulitzer]

• The Jewish community of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, is anxious for its own safety given the recent coup in the country. [JTA]

• Veteran negotiator Aaron David Miller posits that the Obama administration’s goal may be to encourage a change in Israeli government—so that they no longer have to deal with Prime Minister Netanyahu. [LAT]

• The notorious Norman Finkelstein appeared last week in front of the U.N. Correspondents Assocation. [TNR.com]

• Jewcy uncovers the executive editor of Village Voice Media writing something … really, really questionable about “Jews.” [Jewcy]

Old Jewish negotiator extraordinaire Herb Cohen discusses Real Housewives of New York. Pretty much can’t-miss.

Herb Cohen on Real Housewives of New York, S3E6 from aarongell on Vimeo.

A jury acquitted the former deputy mayor, Leona Beldini, of charges that derived from Dwek’s testimony, even while finding her guilty of other charges that seem to derive, also, from that testimony. It’s a bit of a puzzling development, which at least one other defense attorney attributed to the jury’s reluctance to fully trust Dwek: “[Beldini] got convicted on the same counts she got acquitted on,” said the lawyer, who represents another public official implicated in the corruption scandal (and so, admittedly, has that axe to grind). “The main thing I would take away is that the government is on tenuous ground by the way they conducted this investigation and by putting all their eggs in one basket.”

Beldini’s defense strategy was in part to question Dwek’s integrity as a witness, based, among other things, on his plea bargain related to an alleged $50 million bank fraud. Guessed another attorney representing yet another New Jersey public official who awaits a Dwek-related trial: “I think they’re going to lose one of these high-profile cases, and they’re going to lose it because of Dwek and because of the way the investigation was done.”

Dwek, the son of a prominent Deal, New Jersey, rabbi (who has since disowned him), helped net indictments of 44 individuals, including the Syrian Jewish community’s chief rabbi and numerous north Jersey elected officials.

Split Verdict in Dwek Corruption Trial Has Both Sides Claiming a Measure of Victory [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]

Earlier: Did Dwek Get a Good Deal?

• Solomon Dwek, who wore a wire to help break open a corruption scandal within the Syrian Jewish community of Deal, New Jersey, started sobbing on the witness stand when the cross-examiner asked him if he has any friends. [NJ.com]

• The treacherous world that is the Orthodox Jewish singles scene. [Guernica]

• Introducing “nasology”: a phrenology of noses. Includes “The Jewish or Hawk Nose.” [the ragbag via The Awl]

• How Israel deals with its 300,000 foreign workers—one-third of them illegal—from such places as the Philippines, China, and India. [Foreign Policy]

• In Jerusalem, former Arkansas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee accused the Obama administration of a “one-sided” approach, disproportionately harsh on Israel, to the peace process. [JTA]

Dwek, the son of a prominent Deal rabbi (who has since disowned him), cooperated with the U.S. Justice Department in exchange for a significant plea bargain related to money laundering charges. His work helped net indictments of 44 individuals, including the Syrian Jewish community’s chief rabbi and numerous north Jersey elected officials.

On Witness Stand, Dwek Tells Life of Crime [Asbury Park Press]
First Dwek Video Shown to Federal Jury [Asbury Park Press]

Earlier: Did Dwek Get a Good Deal?

Comparing the Vote in the Governor’s Race [NYT]
Related: No New Deal [Tablet]

“He was just doing his job—I don’t judge him,” said one 60-year-old woman, who declined to give her name. Dressed elegantly against the fall chill in a leopard-trimmed leather jacket, the woman—an Arabic speaker whose grandparents emigrated from Syria decades ago, and who splits her time between Deal and Brooklyn, where she grew up and where her children now live—said she wasn’t so much pro-Christie as against everyone else in the race, including the independent candidate, Chris Daggett. “To be honest, I don’t know if I like Christie,” she admitted. “But I hate Corzine, and you can’t waste a vote.”

Other voters emerging from Deal’s public elementary school—its sole polling place, only a short drive from the synagogues whose rabbis are currently facing criminal charges—didn’t make the link at all between Christie and the arrests, and few were willing to answer any questions about ongoing repercussions of the arrests. Instead, they offered a litany of explanations for supporting Christie: healthcare reform, the economy, the Obama administration’s apparent willingness to put pressure on Israel. Some said they considered themselves open-minded when it came to partisan issues—several recalled voting for John Kennedy—but tended to side with the Republicans when it came to state and national politics. Deal’s Syrian Jewish mayor, Harry Franco, who stopped by midmorning with his wife, offered a more straightforward explanation for Christie’s popularity in Deal. “Right now I think the main issue is property taxes,” Franco explained.

The Christie campaign—aided by the national Republican Jewish Coalition—has pushed the tax issue, targeting politically conservative Orthodox Jews, and Jewish swing voters, with pocketbook arguments, attacking Corzine for his decision to roll back property tax rebates in the face of a state budget deficit. “We’ve been getting e-mails for weeks in my crowd,” said one retired man, a McCain supporter who said he was an avid watcher of Fox News. Meanwhile, Democratic operatives spent the day focusing their efforts on turning out liberal Jewish voters in suburbs closer to New York and Philadelphia, leaving Corzine’s supporters in Deal mostly to their own devices.

One man sporting a large satin kippah described himself as a regular Democratic voter, and said he had voted for Corzine because Christie—a Bush appointee—represented “the same old business.” And over at M&A Kosher Meats, a few minutes from the school, one shopper said she planned to cast her ballot for Corzine on her way home, because she’d grown up in a Democratic household in Brooklyn and saw no reason to switch sides now. “I’ll tell you, none of them are any good,” she said, laughing. “But I always vote, because otherwise I couldn’t complain.”

Everyone, though, presumes the threats were somehow connected to the recent arrests of five rabbis and others in the community on various money-laundering, tax evasion, and organ-trafficking charges. For that, there’s no shortage of people to blame. Yesterday, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach weighed in with a rather weak reproach of the rabbis involved, accusing them of abusing their moral authority and, potentially, the goodwill of charitable donors for their own profit; he cites Mark Charendoff, head of the Jewish Funders Network, to argue “there is a special place in hell reserved for these individuals.” (Never mind that Judaism really doesn’t have a hell, per se.)

And today, former New York mayor Ed Koch—apparently recovered from his own recent brush with the afterlife—praised Solomon Dwek, the mole who exposed the shenanigans in his own community to avoid prosecution for his own check-kiting scam. Koch also put out a clarion call to the New York and New Jersey boards of rabbis to instead denounce any religious leaders—namely, Dwek’s father, Isaac, rabbi of the Deal synagogue—who seek to blame the mosers for the mess. “It would be unacceptable for a Christian not to cooperate with the police in bringing a Christian who committed a criminal act to justice,” Koch declared in his Jerusalem Post blog. “The same rule of law applies to Jews.”

Long Branch, Deal Synagogue Threats Still Under Probe [Asbury Park Press]
When Rabbis Fail Their Communities [Jewish Journal]
Are We Our Brothers’ Keeper? [JPost]
Related: Crisis of Faith [Tablet]

The New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office was headed until last winter by Christopher Christie, a Republican known for aggressive investigations of public corruption who is currently running for governor against the incumbent Democrat, Jon Corzine. A poll released yesterday puts Christie ahead by 15 percentage points.

UPDATE, 12:45 p.m.: The Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that this morning’s sweep began with an investigation into money transfers by members of the Syrian Jewish community in New York and New Jersey to public officials in connection with real-estate transactions.

According to a criminal complaint filed this morning, a cooperating witness helped FBI investigators capture Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano offering to help ease zoning restrictions in exchange for campaign cash. The Asbury Park Press identifies the witness as Solomon Dwek, a once-prominent member of the Syrian community in Deal, New Jersey, who was arrested in 2006 after bouncing a $25 million check. A message left seeking comment from Dwek’s attorney, Christopher Porrino, was not immediately returned.

A separate complaint filed in the case of Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican, alleges the lawmaker offered a cooperating witness assistance securing coastal development permits in exchange for money, and mentioned a prospective congressional run. It is not clear whether that witness is the same person mentioned in the Cammarano complaint.

The Asbury Park Press and the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, are also reporting that the case also involves allegations of trafficking in human body parts and that one of those arrested is an organ dealer.

This morning’s sweep included arrests in the Williamsburg, Flatbush, and Borough Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The Yeshiva World News is reporting that there will be a public gathering in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood to recite prayers on behalf of all those arrested; Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn, told Tablet that anyone picked up in New York will be taken to New Jersey, where the case is being prosecuted.

N.J. corruption arrests ensnare Assemblyman, mayors, rabbis [Star-Ledger]
FBI: Van Pelt Took $10,000 Bribe for Waretown Development [Asbury Park Press]
Dozens Arrested in New Jersey Corruption Probe [WSJ]