Journalist I. Bakr used his column in Egypt's Al-Ahram this week to defend Syria against Israel's smashing of a Syrian radar station. The Israeli move came in response to a Hizbullah attack that killed an IDF soldier on the Israel-Lebanon border last month. "The Israeli raid that attacked the Syrian forces in Lebanon, has consolidated the Syrian position," writes Bakr. "It actually proved that Sharon resembled a rotten malicious military mentality. He chairs a lame Israeli government that digs its own grave with its own hands. The counting down of the fall of this racist government has already started. Such government could neither stop the Intifada nor could it plot an intrigue between Syria and Lebanon." Again, it neither halted the border commando operations nor could it provide security for Israeli settlers. Now President Bashar [Assad] follows the steps of his father who proved to have great ability in facing Israel with cool nerves and wise rationality." In closing, Bakr asserts: "Damascus will not slide to a military confrontation with Tel Aviv but shall answer in due place and time."