Former Mayor Ed Koch hoping to be released from hospital today

After receiving at least two blood transfusions for anemia, flinty former Mayor Ed Koch is awaiting test results and hoping to be released from NY Presbyterian/Cornell Weill Medical Center Thursday, said his spokesman, George Arzt.

Koch, who turns 88 on Dec. 12, was admitted to the East Side medical complex Tuesday, after losing his appetite and feeling weak.

The former mayor has been fielding calls from politicians including NYC City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, NY State Assemblyman David Weprin and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel asking after his well being. "But he doesn't care about that," said Arzt. "All he cares about is why the Democrats haven't included Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in their platform, as they did four years ago," said Arzt, speaking from the Democratic Convention in Charlotte.

The former Mayor is hoping that President Barack Obama will make reference to Jerusalem in his speech to the delegates Thursday night, said Arzt.

The former mayor, an ardent supporter of Israel, purchased a plot from the Trinity Church nondenominational cemetery at 155th St. and Amsterdam Ave. years ago and has said he wants his tombstone inscribed with the last words of writer Daniel Pearl before he was killed by terrorists: "My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish."