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.
In Biblical usage, the name was confined to the country west of the Jordan. Canaanites were described as living by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan (Numbers 33:51; Joshua 22:9), and was especially identified with Phoenicia (Isaiah 23:11).