Syria are usually a pretty competitive side, they nearly made the WCQ playoffs a few years ago against Australia where the latter had to scrape it, but they still aren't great, I wouldn't call them minnows though.
Syria's starting 9 plays for Alianza Lima. He's actually a very good player and one of the best 9's in Peru but I don't think it's the sort of decent quality Gonzo was referring to in attack.
In 2019 he was nowhere near as good as he is now, he looks far more developed to a higher standard. Back then it was flashes of talent and he was already on of their better players but he could not win games with just his quality alone.
I am quite behind on European football that I didn't realize Al Tamaari was in France, and it looks like that helped his development. Looks a seriously class player now as opposed to 2019 where it was just raw talent.
For sure, I am pretty certain there are a lot of governments that prefer Taiwan but it just isn't worth losing the benefits with mainland China. They are just too powerful over tiny Taiwan.
As for White Terror, that sounds like a worse version of the protests in the late 20th century in mainland China. No good guys in any of the governments then
Israel really do not help themselves do they? I try to justify both sides' actions by having some empathy on one of them losing land unjustly and the other side having a group of people who would have gotten killed wherever they went. Politics or politicians really only care for their best interests as obvious as that sounds.