[Restorer]

I don't think there was much left of the Phoenician stock by the time the Romans were done with them.

Not true. Septimium Severus, a later Emperor, was partly of Punic descent. The Carthaginians had a huge empire, with many subordinate cities. Most of them were not destroyed in the way Carthage was.

Arabs are Hamitic, not Semitic.

Not true, unless you make up your own definitions. According to the Bible, Arabs are descended from Ishmael, Abraham's other son.

They also speak a Semitic language, quite closely related to Hebrew.

[inquest]

"Semitic" refers to the twelve tribes of Shem. The Arabs were not among that number. The other group were the tribes of Cham (if I have that name correct). I never claimed that the Arabs weren't related to the Hebrews. The Semites and Hamites are two related groups, in the same sense that the different branches of the Indo-European family are related, but still form separate branches.