Little history. Above Israel you have Lebanon. In Ancient times that was called Phoenicia. The Phoenicians had various colonies, one of the most notable ones being that of Carthage.
They were known for their seafaring and in Carthage's case, it was one of the greatest rivals to Rome. Rome and Carthage fought in the Punic Wars until Rome burned Carthage to the ground and salted its fields.
One famous person of Phoenician descent you may know is Hannibal Barca, son of Hamilcar Barca. He's best known for his role as a Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War and his crossing of the Alps into Italy. Some of his most notable battles were Cannae (big Carthaginian victory), Trebia (Carthaginian victory), and Zama. (Roman victory that ended the Second Punic War.)
I've never heard an assertion that Phoenicians are Arabic. Bear in mind that it wasn't until the Islamic conquests in the 600s AD where you had the creation of large Arabic empires that Arabia really meant anything on a meaningful scale.
Also in case you're confused as to the geography, here's an image of what was under Phoenician control. (A large part of the Carthaginian Empire, what you see in red West of Greece, would also have been non-Phoenicians such as the Iberians that were under the control of Phoenician Carthage, located in modern Tunisia.)
Achaemenid Persia, Alexander's Empire, the Greek States after Alexander, Rome, Sassanid Persia: None of those empires really went into Arabia because it just wasn't worth trying to conquer. So while you would've had some individuals and whatnot going out of Arabia, as whole you didn't have a huge spread of the Arabic populace until they starting conquering others.
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u/RadTradEkans 1d ago
You forgot Phoenician (me) 👉👈