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Are there any other instances in the world where a country is in a situation similar to Israel, where all its land neighboring countries consider it an enemy?

While Israel does have peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the people in those countries still hold a negative view of Israel. See Egypt and Jordan.

The remaining two countries, Lebanon and Syria are in a state of war with Israel.

Palestine has both, a state of war in Gaza, and peace deal with tensions and conflicts in the West Bank, so people in the two parts still view Israel as an enemy.

Edit: Can countries still be enemies after signing a peace treaty?

I had initially removed this part of the question in response to a request in a comment, but doing so led to the type of comments I had hoped to avoid. Therefore, I am reinserting it.

I think it is still possible for one or two countries to continue viewing each other as enemies even after signing a peace deal. A peace deal or treaty may mark the formal end of hostilities and conflict, but it doesn't necessarily mean that all underlying issues or historical grievances are fully resolved. Sometimes, political, economic, or ideological differences can persist, leading to ongoing tensions or a perception of enmity between the two nations. In such cases, the peace deal might help prevent further conflict, but it may not completely eliminate the perception of enmity between the countries

Mocas
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    There is a big difference between having negative views and disagreements with a country and those countries being its "enemies" within the sense of international law, which implies pretty much being in a state of war with them. So, Israel doesn't qualify. Also, Israel's shore is about 20 km from Saudi Arabia's shore on the Gulf of Aqaba. I'm not sure where the boundary line is in that Gulf but their national boundaries might touch in that body of water and are at least closer than that. – ohwilleke Oct 13 '23 at 22:00
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    This question could be improved by more clearly specifying what the criterion is for being a neighbor (does it require land border or just certain level of proximity?) and for considering a country an enemy. Since the friendly relationship between the governments of Israel, Jordan and Egypt seems to carry little weight, the question seems to be more about popular attitudes, but the Wikipedia links regarding Egypt cites a 2006 poll and the one for Jordan cites nothing. – jkej Oct 14 '23 at 01:35
  • I don't doubt that there are negative sentiments about Israel in these countries, especially at this time, but by what metric should this be compared to other parts of the world? – jkej Oct 14 '23 at 01:35
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    @ohwilleke I did have a section on the question explaining why these are enemies but another user complained about that section and asked me to remove it. – Mocas Oct 14 '23 at 04:14
  • The snarky part of me wants to mention that Egypt and Israel are on terrible terms with Gaza, but of course, Gaza isn't a country and Egypt is more of a frenemy anyway. – user121330 Oct 15 '23 at 03:33
  • Could you please edit your question. Israel and Egypt normalized relations on the 26th of February 1980, and have been considered an ally ever since, except for a short period under the Muslim Brotherhood. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 15 '23 at 18:18
  • @AaarghZombies updated the question. Egypt and Israel are far from being allies. I personally know Egyptians and follow Egyptian media, and I can assure you that Israel has never stopped being seen as the enemy in the eyes of the majority of Egyptians. – Mocas Oct 15 '23 at 18:33
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    @Mocas, I'm still worried by your premise. The country of Egypt is on reasonable terms with Israel, there are no official hostilities, they have multiple shared treaties, and diplomatic relations are strong enough that the US supplies Egypt with significant quantities of weapons each year. There are some factions of the Egyptian population who are hostile, by if you're going to count that then China, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Pakistan and India all meet your criteria due to hostile factions in their neighboring populations despite there being no official hostilities. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 15 '23 at 18:41
  • @AaarghZombies, I don't think that if two countries engage in trade, maintain diplomatic relations, and have no official hostilities, it means they are not enemies; they can still be enemies despite all of that. There was a TV series released in the 1980s or 1990s about the Egyptian spy Refaat Al-Gammal, and it is still famous, with people still watching it nowadays. This gives them a sense of victory or accomplishment. – Mocas Oct 15 '23 at 20:08
  • @Mocas, could you please detail the criteria that you use to determine that one state is the enemy of another? – Aaargh Zombies Oct 15 '23 at 20:20
  • @AaarghZombiesq Egypt is a dictatorship; the government doesn't represent the true desires of its people. While its actions might be in the best interest of the country, the fact that it maintains peace with Israel doesn't necessarily mean they aren't enemies. In the 2012 Egyptian elections, the (anti-Israel) Muslim Brotherhood party won the election but was later ousted by a military coup. Anwar Sadat, who recognized Israel, was assassinated for doing so. In response to your question, beyond all the formal reasons for countries to be enemies, I would also add the general public perception. – Mocas Oct 15 '23 at 20:45
  • Technically, all island nations satisfy this. – Princess Ada Oct 17 '23 at 09:49
  • @PrincessAda islands aren't applicable because they don't have land neighbors – Mocas Oct 17 '23 at 10:13
  • @AaarghZombies just watched this and remembered you straight away. A prank in Egypt, a guy won $5000/month contract in Israel https://twitter.com/drhossamsamy65/status/1721360283862515979 – Mocas Nov 06 '23 at 08:42
  • @Mocas, was this official government policy, or between private citizens or companies. Dies it represent the state of Egypt? – Aaargh Zombies Nov 07 '23 at 10:28
  • @AaarghZombies no it doesn't. This is just to show you the perception of Israel in Egypt among the public. It is perceived as an enemy, something that you didn't want to believe or accept. – Mocas Nov 07 '23 at 14:53
  • @Mocas, In your original question you specify that a "country" must be an "enemy", not that a country must have "poor public perception among general citizens", by that virtue England is an enemy state to France and Germany, and is 5 seconds away from nuking the entire of the EU, plus most of Scotland. If you meant "public hostility" then please change your question to reflect that you mean public opinion and not government policy. – Aaargh Zombies Nov 07 '23 at 20:01
  • @AaarghZombies If you check my comment on 15th October, I did answer your question saying "In response to your question, beyond all the formal reasons for countries to be enemies, I would also add the general public perception." – Mocas Nov 07 '23 at 21:21
  • @AaarghZombies https://www.alquds.com/en/posts/100760 – Mocas Nov 14 '23 at 20:21

11 Answers11

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South Korea.

Its only neighbor (by land) is North Korea.

Rick Smith
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Questor
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    And they definitely have an active No Man's Land between them... People do die there. – Nelson Oct 15 '23 at 15:37
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    The two Koreas are technically still at war with each other. They've had an armistice since 1953, but never a treaty. – dan04 Oct 16 '23 at 19:01
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If you are willing to consider countries close to others by the sea (say less than 100 miles) as neighbors, then Taiwan's only neighbor is China.

Yes, I know that Taiwan doesn't legally consider China to be a real country, and China doesn't consider Taiwan to be a real country either. But in the world both of them are real countries that have guns pointed.

Community
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Questor
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    I am only looking for countries with land borders, which is the reason I didn't include Saudi Arabi in the list above, as it is only 10miles away from Israel by sea. – Mocas Oct 13 '23 at 16:18
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    thought that was likely... I suggest that you modify your question so that intent is more clear. Neighbors is a bit vague – Questor Oct 13 '23 at 16:27
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    The shortest distance from Kinmen (Taiwan) to the PRC is only 2,310 meters (source). – user103496 Oct 14 '23 at 03:15
  • @Mocas, so that would rule out Cuba, due to America not having a land border? – Aaargh Zombies Oct 15 '23 at 20:21
  • @AaarghZombies, yes, I am looking for only land borders because it would be difficult to choose who is one country's neighbor if there is water between them. What is the maximum distance between two countries before you start assuming they aren't neighbors? It would have to be some arbitrary number. – Mocas Oct 15 '23 at 20:27
  • One could argue that the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base constitutes a land border between Cuba and the USA though. – Shakesbeer Oct 16 '23 at 15:30
  • @Shakesbeer: What about the land border between Denmark and Canada (a few miles on a formerly "disputed" island near Greenland)? – supercat Oct 16 '23 at 16:44
  • @supercat Denmark has other neighbors, as does Canada... – Questor Oct 16 '23 at 16:46
  • @Mocas, I chose 100 miles because that is generally (unless you are China) considered the limit of national waters... SO countries that are within 100 miles of each other by the sea have overlapping national waters, and therefore have a border with eachother... Instead of being sorounded by international water. – Questor Oct 16 '23 at 16:49
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    @Questor: I was pondering more the question of whether Canada would be viewed as having US as its only land neighbor, or whether Denmark would disqualify Canada from being bordered only by the US (though of course it's over 200 years since the US and Canada have really been enemies). – supercat Oct 16 '23 at 16:50
  • @supercat I misunderstood you. Sorry. – Questor Oct 16 '23 at 17:01
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    @Questor: I completely failed to say why I was mentioning that border. I think for most of the history of the US-Canada border, it was the only land border Canada had with anyone, but the peace treaty, which provides that either side may unilaterally terminate it with 30 days notice without being viewed as violating it, has held up remarkably well, and resulted in both parties to the War of 1812 being better off than would have been possible if either had won (even the "winning" party would probably have been worse off than under the actual state of affairs). – supercat Oct 16 '23 at 17:33
  • @Mocas, So would Ireland count as it's enemies with Northern Island which has a land border, but not Wales, which is a sea border? – Aaargh Zombies Oct 18 '23 at 15:48
  • @AaarghZombies put it as an answer... I thought they had made peace though. – Questor Oct 18 '23 at 18:35
  • @Questor, I'm still waiting on the OP's definition of "enemy" before putting anything in the form of an answer. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 18 '23 at 18:37
  • @AaarghZombies Enemy definition from Google: a hostile nation or its armed forces, especially in times of war. However, as I mentioned in my comment under the question, I would also include the general public perception of that nation. For example, Egypt's state media refers to Israel with that name, but a big majority of media and Egyptian people still refer to Israel as the 'Zionist occupying forces' or the 'Zionist entity.' They also refer to all the land, not just Gaza and the West Bank, as occupied Palestine. – Mocas Oct 19 '23 at 17:24
  • @Mocas, the America would count since a substantial portion of the the public in Canada and Mexico have an exceedingly poor opinion of the US. England would count too due to the perceptions of the Welsh and the Scottish. Officially though Egypt is probably the second strongest ally that Israel has, after the US. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 19 '23 at 20:04
  • @AaarghZombies How can Egypt be considered an ally when Israel is attempting to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai? Just a few days ago, Sisi criticized Israel for this and suggested that if they want a temporary place for Palestinians while dealing with Hamas, they should place them in the Negev Desert. I don't see this as a sign of alliance. This suggests that you are quite distant from what is happening in the region – Mocas Oct 19 '23 at 20:12
  • @AaarghZombies If Egypt were an ally to Israel, wouldn't you expect Egypt to open the Gaza border unconditionally to allow foreign nationals in Gaza to escape the war, rather than demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to enter Gaza? – Mocas Oct 20 '23 at 07:51
  • @Mocas, I think that you've misunderstood the situation. Egypt is keeping the border closed at Israel's request. Israel wants to ensure that aid and arms don't get to Hamas through the Sinai , and that Hamas doesn't escape into Egypt across the border. This is proof that they are strong allies, and not enemies. An enemy would sent aid and weapons to Hamas, not keep the penned in. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 21 '23 at 07:46
  • @Mocas, France and Germany are allies, and yet they bicker constantly about who will take refugees. Not wanting a million people to be relocated on your land isn't evidence that you're an enemy, it's evidence that you don't want your neighbors problems. Plus, if they are relocated to Israeli territory it will be easier to process and return them. Israel already has their records and they won't need Visa. Israel has better infrastructure and is wealthier, and the Sinai is poorly suited to build a refugee camp as it lacks water an infrastructure. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 21 '23 at 07:51
  • @AaarghZombies Do you know who can translate Arabic for you? Have a look at what Israel is called in the Egyptian parliament, unfortunately they don't have subtitles.check this around 24sec, https://youtu.be/xqGuUtgsnaA?si=1dtTSsvSFGGD-7HK, he called it "the occupying Israeli entity". – Mocas Oct 22 '23 at 05:29
  • @Mocas, Fluent speaker of Arabic and Hebrew. Also English. The BBC use an almost identical phrase. Pro Palestinian Israeli lawmakers use a similar phrase to describe Israeli forces in Gaza, the West bank and the Golan Heights. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 22 '23 at 13:35
  • @AaarghZombies the problem isn't with the word "occupier", the whole world uses that in relation to 1967 borders, the issue is with the use of the word "entity"-كيان. This word is used by Arabs who don't even recognize Israel as a country. – Mocas Oct 22 '23 at 14:07
  • @Mocas, It's also used to describe state actors in general. For example كيان الدولة. The person in the video is simply referring to the structure of Israel, rather than the geographic state. This, for example, would include the government and the military. This is the equivalent of saying "Russian Occupied Crimea", as a way of referring to the Russian military and to Moscow at the same time. Without saying that you recognize the territory as being in Russia itself – Aaargh Zombies Oct 22 '23 at 15:07
  • @AaarghZombies I agree with the case in كيان الدولة، but when the word used in the above context it has a different meaning. Have a read here why Arabs use the word كيان when referring to Israel https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A – Mocas Oct 22 '23 at 15:19
  • @Mocas, Most other countries us similar phraseology. It is a way of referring to the state of Israel rather than the geographic area under the control of Israel. It doesn't make the entire country an enemy, it just means that don't accept the same definition of what Israel is as the Israeli government does. Similar phraseology is used for Taiwan. – Aaargh Zombies Oct 22 '23 at 15:41
  • @AaarghZombies in the wiki page, have you read " يوصف المصطلح بأنه وسيلة للتعبير عن العداء لإسرائيل ورفض الإقرار بوجودها". It literally says it is a way to express enmity to Israel and the refusal of accepting its existence. Not sure what else you require after this. – Mocas Oct 22 '23 at 18:24
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In the past, there have been many examples of this. Canada's only neighbor is the US, and the two went to war in 1812 (but they get along fine now). The UK and Ireland are each other's only neighbors, and they had a lengthy period of what I will charitably describe as "extremely poor relations" (things are still a bit tense, but much less so after the signing of the Good Friday agreement). Haiti and the Dominican Republic also have a history of enmity with one another (which is still somewhat of a problem today, as far as I can tell).

Kevin
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  • Was Canada also on war with USSR or consider each other enemies? As they shared the border up until 1867. I am mainly looking for current examples, but it is still interesting to know about historic ones as well. – Mocas Oct 13 '23 at 16:30
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    @Mocas: The USSR did not exist prior to 1922. You're thinking of the Russian Empire. As far as I'm aware, Russia and Canada were not in serious conflict, but the US and (what would eventually become) Canada were still having boundary disputes at least as late as 1859, so I think it is reasonable to assume that it took awhile for the countries to warm up to each other, even after the Alaska purchase. – Kevin Oct 13 '23 at 16:32
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    (1) In 1812, Canada was a colony of the UK. But if you count Canada in 1812 as its own country, then it had a land border with other UK colonies or native tribes. (2) Through Gibraltar, the UK has had a land border with Spain since 1713. (The UK has probably had other land borders with other countries too.) – user103496 Oct 14 '23 at 03:11
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    The USSR before WWII... – Anixx Oct 14 '23 at 03:46
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    Actually Canada has a land border with Denmark now, although relations have recently improved with them! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Island – JeffUK Oct 14 '23 at 10:10
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    The UK and Irish governments have had cordial relations for hundreds of years. The Good Friday agreement was more to do with the status of Northern Ireland. – Valorum Oct 14 '23 at 11:24
  • Canada still have plans to repel a US invasion and a plan for counter-invade US even in 1921: the Defence Scheme No. 1. And US has its War Plan Red against Canada. – Faito Dayo Oct 14 '23 at 16:05
  • @user103496 well Canada wasn't even a single colony in 1812, it was a bunch of disparate territories which weren't joined together until 1867 – llama Oct 14 '23 at 23:53
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    The idea that the UK and Ireland have had "extremely poor relations" is ridiculous. Apart from periods when Europe as a whole was in near-constant warfare due to religious tensions and (mostly) kings and queens who were just greedy, which hardly counts. Economically and politically we've always been close and indeed one of the most famous military and political leaders of the UK was Irish (chap called Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington). Don't confuse the actions of extremists or the odd bigot with the majority. Even during the Troubles the vast majority just wanted to get along. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Oct 15 '23 at 09:46
  • Historically there are certainly a lot. South Africa in the 1980s was surrounded by independent nations with black governments, while fighting a war in Namibia. Russia after the October Revolution didn't have many friends and fought multiple wars, although I think Mongolia may have been sympathetic for a while. Franco's Spain after the leftist coup in Portugal. Probably post-revolutionary Iran. Etc. Although question seems to be about present day. – Stuart F Oct 15 '23 at 12:46
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    Are the people claiming that Ireland and Britain have never had poor relations missing the entire period of colonisation, somewhat forceful union, and an independence war? It's only in the last 100 years since independence that relations have become halfway sensible. – GS - Apologise to Monica Oct 16 '23 at 10:10
  • @FaitoDayo Of course the US has a plan against Canada. 90% of their population is massed within 100 miles of the border and 70% is already below the 49th parallel. – Michael Richardson Oct 16 '23 at 13:11
  • I don't really think Canada counts as it was not a country. The US declared war on England for their trade blockades and conscription of US sailors for the Napoleonic war. I would hardly call them enemies as many had the opinion that the English remaining in North America would join the US (sounds more like friends than enemies), which did not happen. – rtaft Oct 16 '23 at 14:38
  • Albania also was pretty surrounded by non-friendly countries post-WWII. – Jan Oct 16 '23 at 15:39
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If you consider territories with only limited international recognition, but which are a political reality:

  • Both the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus. Their only land border is the UN-controled buffer zone between the two. The independence of Northern Cyprus is only recognized by Turkey. Internationally, the northern part is considered to be under Turkish occupation.

  • Transnistria is locked between Moldova and Ukraine. There are no UN member states that recognize its independence from Moldova. The Council of Europe considers Russia to be an occupying force, but Russia itself still keeps things in the air. Ukraine for a long time had good relations to Transnistria, but since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there have been signs/rumors that Ukraine would take Moldova's side and even back a Moldovan forced occupation.

ccprog
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One could say Venezuela [too] to some extent. This has been somewhat dependent on governments in the neighboring countries. But in a nutshell

  • Broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia for a few years (reestablished in the meantime). Border closures were common.
  • Has a border/territorial dispute with Guyana. US helps the latter with sea patrols etc.
  • Bad relations with Brazil when the latter was run by a right-wing government. Brazil recognized the opposition leader as president etc.
the gods from engineering
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Lesotho, which is an enclave of (completely surrounded by) South Africa, was invaded by South Africa in 1998.

In 2023, Lesotho's parliament debated a motion "that Lesotho should reclaim all of Free State province, which at 130,000 square kilometres is more than four times the size of the kingdom, as well parts of four other provinces bordering the landlocked state." (Reuters.)

user103496
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    Yeah, but the latter event was a motion by a minor opposition leader in Lesotho. Many countries have some nationalist movement that wants "Greater OurCountry", but they're not always in power. The 1998 "invasion" was not related to that though; it was in fact requested by the Lesotho ruling party. As for territory, Lesotho lost those lands in the 1960s, when it was formed. – the gods from engineering Oct 16 '23 at 07:27
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Eritrea has a conflict with Ethiopia and "tense" relationships with Sudan and Djibouti. Although it formally has diplomatic relations with both Sudan and Djibouti, there are border issues with Djibouti (that have necessitated a Qatari peacekeeping force until recently) and cross-border issues with Sudan, over Sudanese support for Islamist groups within Eritrea.

However, there doesn't seem to be a national enmity between Eritrea and Sudan in the way that there is between Eritrea and Ethiopia (or between Israel and Syria) And the level of conflict seems to depend much upon the personal interactions between the leaders of the countries.

James K
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This was Hungary after WW1 around the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. From the north it was attacked by the newly formed Czechoslovakia, from the east by Romania and from the south by the Kingdom or Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Even Austria, the former co-constituent of Austria-Hungary, took lands from Hungary in the west. The result was that Hungary had to cede about 2/3 of its territory. While large groups of non-Hungarians living in those territories welcomed these border changes, also several millions of Hungarians found themselves under the rule of neighbouring countries because the new borders did not respect the linguistic borders. While you may say that this does not have any relevance to current days politics, exactly the opposite is true.

Adam Gyenge
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Until a few weeks I would have suggested Artsakh. But in general, most enclaves or exclaves are either currently in this situation, or were at some point in their history.

adam.baker
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    But Artsakh is not a country. Instead, it is a part of a country (either Armenia or Azerbaijan) which borders other countries, not all of which are enemies. – user103496 Oct 15 '23 at 09:34
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    Hmmm... Wikipedia calls it the Republic of Aetsakh.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Artsakh?wprov=sfla1 – adam.baker Oct 15 '23 at 09:50
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    Whether you're a country depends on whether you're widely recognized as one. You can declare yourself Republic of Whatever, but that doesn't mean others recognize you as a country. If you disagree, then you probably want to include such countries as Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands (and hence also Australia). – user103496 Oct 16 '23 at 02:30
  • There's a difference between de jure and de facto, and there's certainly a sliding scale on both. But your quarrel is with the concept of a country, not with the Republic of Artsakh. :-) – adam.baker Oct 16 '23 at 05:53
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    Artsakh was neither de jure nor de facto independent. All observers considered it effectively run by Armenia.

    https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/the-nagorno-karabakh-conflict-in-the-context-of-retrospective-ethno-geopolitics: "Nagorno-Karabakh became de facto part of Armenia (its quasi-statehood can dupe no one)"

    https://books.google.com/books?id=QBWgBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA211: "Nagorno-Karabakh is de facto part of Armenia."

     – user103496 Oct 16 '23 at 06:21
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Historically, this was true of England, which was either at war with, or invaded Scotland and Wales for much of their history as separate nations, in addition to a longstanding enmity with over-the-water neighbours France and Ireland, and frequently bloody rivalries with Germany (and its predecessor states), the Netherlands and Spain.

Roderick
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Pakistan, has active conflicts with both Afghanistan and India over border disputes, and has so-and-so relations with Iran and China, although it does not actively engage in conflicts with either of these two so I suppose it isn't as extreme of an example as Israel is

Madoka
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