Jordan's King Abdullah Attempts To Get Ahead of Protests

The problems that are racking Egypt with protests and riots can be found throughout the Middle East. Regimes that are not responsive or responsible to the people. Regimes that have excused their failing policies by blaming others - whether it is the US, Israel, or a combination of the two. Regimes that crush any and all opposition because they are perceived as threats to the regimes.

Jordan is no exception.

Now, Jordan's King Abdullah is trying to stave off the death rattle that currently swirls around Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. King Abdullah has fired his entire government.

Jordan's Royal Palace says the king has fired his government in the wake of street protests and has asked an ex-army general to form a new Cabinet.

King Abdullah's move comes after thousands of Jordanians took to the streets -- inspired by the regime ouster in Tunisia and the turmoil in Egypt -- and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Samir Rifai who is blamed for a rise in fuel and food prices and slowed political reforms.
The Royal Palace says Rifai's Cabinet resigned on Tuesday.

Abdullah also nominated Marouf al-Bakhit as his prime minister-designate. No other details were immediately available.

Demonstrators inspired by mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt had called for Rifai's dismissal.

"(Bakhit) is a former general and briefly ambassador to Israel who has been prime minister before. He's someone who would be seen as a safe pair of hands," said Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle East policy studies at London's City University.

"I wouldn't see it as a sign of liberalization. With his previous premiership, he talked the talk of reform but little actually happened," she said.

Under fire from an enraged public over high food prices, Rifai announced wage increases two weeks ago to civil servants and the military in an attempt to restore calm.

It's anything but clear whether these steps will placate the Jordanian people, or whether even more drastic steps will need to be taken to prevent the protests from turning into riots that spiral out of the king's control.

Cordoba House/Park51 Developers Deny Interest In St. Vincent's Properties

A day after an intriguing report claimed that the Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was investigating the idea of purchasing the defunct St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village in order to establish a new hospital, even as additional reports seem to suggest that no one else knows that the King was interested, community center, mosque, and housing, developers associated with the Cordoba House/Park51 project claim that they have no interest in the property.

The backers of the Ground Zero mosque shot down a report Sunday that Saudi King Abdullah would move the controversial development to the closed St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village.

"No one has contacted me or my husband about it," said Daisy Khan, who has been an adviser on the project. She and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, are affiliated with the planned construction of a $100 million Park Place prayer space and community center two blocks north of Ground Zero.

"I remain committed to the idea of the creation of a multifaith community center in lower Manhattan," the imam said.

The mosque isn't moving from its proposed Park Place site, a source close to mosque developer Sharif el-Gamal said.

The Rudin family real estate developers are currently in talks to buy the hospital property to turn it into housing with a medical component.

It is interesting that no other major developers are interested in buying the St. Vincent's hospital properties other than the Rudin family. Adding additional prospective buyers would drive up the asking price though, so I wouldn't be surprised that the sellers are hinting at additional buyers so as to get an increase in bids for the properties.

Moreover, the proposed Saudi "plan" would be a more interesting use of the hospital properties, and would provide significant community benefits - including opening a hospital in a underserved area.

Saudi King Abdullah Proposes Cordoba House Move To West Village?

There hasn't been much action on the Cordoba House proposal since it received approvals from the LPC and Community Board 1, but now comes word that the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah, is sounding out officials on taking over the now defunct St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village and building the community center, mosque, and possibly reopening the hospital in some fashion.

A Manhattan lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal family is sounding out officials and community leaders about a plan to move the controversial Ground Zero mosque to the West Village.

Attorney Dudley Gaffin is claiming King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia might want to buy shuttered St. Vincent's Medical Center and transfer the mosque to a new Islamic cultural center he would build on a plot at the site, say sources who have heard Gaffin's pitch.

The king, worth more than $20 billion, would also save the hospital, reopening most of the units that closed when St. Vincent's filed for bankruptcy on April 14, the sources said.

They say that Gaffin, who heads his own firm in lower Manhattan, is floating the idea to gauge what the reaction might be -- and to ready a bid to rival the Rudin Organization, which is trying to snap up St. Vincent's in bankruptcy court with an eye on tearing down six hospital buildings for luxury housing.

"He's asking what it would take to put in a bid," said one community leader who did not want to be identified.

The hospital closed earlier this year because of being massively in debt and unable to reorganize its expenses. The hospital complex in the West Village is some choice land, and real estate developers are hoping to scoop up the property to turn it into luxury housing (and figure 20-30% of the housing units will be deemed affordable housing). The hospital had been trying to redevelop its properties - turning several buildings in to new medical space, while building new housing, but those efforts failed to garner the necessary support and approvals.

If the Cordoba House developers do go in this direction, it would not only result in a community center far from the community where it was originally proposed, but it would no longer touch the nerve of being so close to Ground Zero. The West Village might prefer a new hospital complex to the St. Vincent's reorganization plan. It isn't clear whether the King would outbid the other real estate developers interested in the property.