State extremists in Syria transfixed by row about Israel's borders (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
sri lanka
'state' is the definition.
(Sri Lanka is an example)
'extremists in syria transfixed by row about israel's borders' is the wordplay.
'extremists in' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'transfixed by' indicates putting letters inside.
'row' becomes 'rank' (I've seen this before).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'borders' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the edge or border letters remain).
'syria' with its centre removed is 'sa'.
'israel' with its middle taken out is 'il'.
'rank' enclosing 'il' is 'rilank'.
'sa' enclosing 'rilank' is 'SRI LANKA'.
(Other definitions for sri lanka that I've seen before include "Country in 4" , "Country off the southeast coast of India" , "South Asian republic" , "cricket side" , "Country south of India" .)