javascript not working

[MDanz]

this is just part of the code.  when i added the variable 'hide' it stopped working.  basically i want the php variable 'hide' to add on to the variable 'newtext2'.  if i've implemented it wrong,  need help correcting it.

      var newtext2 = obj( "reply" ).value;
var hide = <?php 
$var = "<span id='close'><a href='javascript:setVisible(\"layer1\")' style='text-decoration: none'><font color='#FBB917' face='Arial' size='3px'><strong>Hide</strong></font></a></span>";

echo $var?>;
         obj( "layer1" ).innerHTML = newtext2+hide;