Word: abdullah
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Jordan's King of nearly a half-century had always been both a fatalist and an optimist. So after six months of unsuccessful treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hussein bin Talal abruptly anointed as successor a little-known son, Abdullah, who promised the failing monarch "to follow in your footsteps...
When a final effort to abate his cancer failed last week, the King came home. On Saturday, Abdullah was sworn in as regent with full governing authority. And on Sunday, as the kingdom mingled fears with prayers, Hussein died, leaving Jordanians to confront a future without the only ruler most of them have ever known...
Even at 37, Abdullah looks almost too young for the job, but outwardly at least he is unmistakably Hussein's son. Like his father, he leaned forward on the edge of his seat as he chatted informally last week with half a dozen journalists, displaying the same self-confidence, modesty and British-accented speech. He parried questions as if he had been doing so all his life, instead of literally for the first time. He has stepped smartly into his new role, and insists that Jordan will not alter significantly. "I have my own areas of interest, the economy, things...
That kind of continuity is crucial for his small but strategic country, and for a King who lacks political experience. Abdullah believes his military career has prepared him well, putting him closely in touch with ordinary Jordanians as well as Washington generals. While Hussein's sickbed decision shocked him, he appears unfazed at stepping out to lead the family "team." As Hussein counseled him years ago, "Have I ever steered you guys wrong?" Still, every citizen and friend of Jordan wonders if Abdullah will prove up to the job his father handled with such finesse...
...very easy to overestimate the distance from Jerusalem to Amman today, but at the time of Israeli independence, the apartment where I sit was a field behind an Arab villa. Jerusalem was a city of Jordan, and King Hussein was at his grandfather's side when the first King Abdullah was assassinated here in 1951. King Hussein personally financed the renovation of the Dome of the Rock and the demolition of the Jewish quarter, and before the Six-Day War in 1967, Amman seemed a world away from Israel politically. The distance and the military controls continued through the Gulf...