Article

2010-06-08 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Phoenician or Arab? Lebanon non-ending debate

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Posted by Fred 2010-06-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1 No bibliography cites? What's next, the AP lifting news from bloggers? Oh, wait, never mind.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-06-08 08:37|| 2010-06-08 08:37|| Front Page Top

#2 Well they can be Phoenicians just as Palestinian were created out of nowhere a couple of decades ago to describe the Arabs in the Palestine region.

The real play here is shame in Arab-ness vs pride in Arab-ness.

Posted by rjschwarz 2010-06-08 09:46|| 2010-06-08 09:46|| Front Page Top

#3 The Phoenicians are mentioned in the Bible as very early Seafarers with ancient archaological inscriptions claiming to be Phoenician found near Paramaribo, Suriname. Hiram of Tyre was Solomon's master builder and shipmaker for trade around the world, aiding in constructing Israel in the glory days. The expansionist Arabs, from the Arabian peninsula of modern Saudi and Yemen, were identified as enemies of the Jews biblically when they disrupted the rebuilding of the wall in Nehemiah's time following Babylonian exile. Claiming territory not their own is ancient news and there is still friction about the bossy outsiders taking over in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.

Posted by Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2010-06-08 10:03|| 2010-06-08 10:03|| Front Page Top

#4 one of my best buddies growing up was Lebanese - his family all claimed to be Phoenician in ancestry, not Arab. This is interesting.

Posted by Broadhead6 2010-06-08 10:20|| 2010-06-08 10:20|| Front Page Top

#5 To me they're all vermin.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2010-06-08 10:25|| 2010-06-08 10:25|| Front Page Top

#6 While I was in Lebanon (69-73) I heard plenty of debates about that.
Christians had the tendency to side with Phoenicians and Muslims with Arabs.
The Tanakh would be a good source for pre-muslims' era.
And by the way what is the definition of "Arab"? Is it a race, a religion, a country, what? Or just a language.
O

Posted by Willy 2010-06-08 11:03|| 2010-06-08 11:03|| Front Page Top

#7 Egypt has a long pre-Islamic history yet most of them consider themselves Arab by this point. On the other hand...

Arabs and Sephartic Jews are both Semites so there is a case to be made that ethincally identical but cultural or religious differences can justify a new name.

Posted by rjschwarz 2010-06-08 12:04|| 2010-06-08 12:04|| Front Page Top

#8 What language do you speak?

"Arab" is a linguistic group, not an ethnic group. It's made up of people whose "first language" is Arabic.

Posted by mojo 2010-06-08 16:39|| 2010-06-08 16:39|| Front Page Top

#9 Phubars.

Posted by swksvolFF 2010-06-08 21:21|| 2010-06-08 21:21|| Front Page Top

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