The Levant is the equivalent term. Greater Syria is sometimes used, but is now charged with questionable political implications.

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Note added at 2003-07-13 09:43:29 (GMT)
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I sometimes use \"East Mediterranean countries\" if I sense that \"Levant\" is not suitable for my audience. \"East Mediterranean\" is not very accurate, because, unless strictly qualified, a reader may think it includes Egypt, for example.

You can also use \"Al-Sham\" (\"Shami\" is the adjectival form) if you can insert an explanation.

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Note added at 2003-07-13 10:04:48 (GMT)
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The countries subsumed under this designation varies from time to time and from place to place. In Syria itself, someone from Aleppo would refer to the capital Damascus as Al-Sham, but would not necessarily object when other Arabs call him Shami, knowing that many people refer to Syria as a whole by that name. A young Jordanian or a Palestinian (born in the 1970s) may object when other Arabs call him Shami, but a Palestinian living in Egypt in the 1930s-1960s would be called Shami without any problem. In Saudi Arabia in the 1960s and 1970s, we called our Palestinian school teachers شوام. Nobody objected.

This is somewhat analogous to the word MASR. In Egypt itself, the word is often used in reference to Cairo, yet an Alexandrian still recognizes himself as being MASRI.

The word عربي has similar ambiguities, but let us not get off the subject.

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Note added at 2003-07-14 00:36:41 (GMT)
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Correction: The countries subsumed under this designation vary (not \"varies\").