It was not until 1942 that Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance. One year later, in June 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite it.
The descendants of the Canaanites/Phoenicians are the modern day inhabitants of Lebanon (specifically the Christians). The Arabs and the Phoenicians aren't at all the same people. They just spoke two languages related to each other.
Until the time of the Israelite conquest under Joshua, the southern part of the Levant, often called Palestine, was known as the land of Canaan. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to the people occupying the land as the Canaanites.