Modern Levant and Levant people three thousand years ago are both different in appearance. You can thank the Romans and Crusaders from Europe for changing this.
To expand on this with some small context albeit way older than the Romans. Egyptians gave the Peleset land in the Levant. Theorised that they were warrior peoples of the sea and the Philistines of biblical text somewhere in the late second millennium BC before the bronze age colapse. There is an incredible documentary by Pete Kelly (History Time) on youtube. Well worth the watch. Another great video he did about the Akkadians called The first Empire. He also did a great video about the Hittites. His whole channel is a goldmine of knowledge of the ancient world.
Any way the ancient world is filled with peoples from all over, moving around. Trade was a major factor. War was another. People from all over the Mediterranean and beyond mixed knowledge, their trades, their crafts, blood on battlefields and likely genes. Probably long before there was a written word pressed in clay.
Like I said, more Olive toned. Sorry it offends you but ancient Europeans, especially people in the Italian peninsula and Greece didn't exactly look like the Europeans of today, being as most of them came from a different part of the world
They weren't white people who left the middle east, they were middle eastern people who eventually turned white due to the different climate conditions of the area.
Not dumb as fuck, nuanced. History is neat like that
Even relatively recently, Italians weren't really considered "white", especially by Americans. The KKK considered them "coloured" people with their olive skin and dangerous Catholicism. There was a big wave of "italiapobia" in the late 19th/early 20th century.
The governer of Louisiana in 1911 described Italians as "just a little worse than the Negro, being if anything filthier in their habits, lawless, and treacherous".
People can be pretty terrible when it comes to race and ethnicity.
I can't vouch for the veracity of any of these since it's not really my field but it's interesting to see how how stuff like this has shifted over time and where the parallels to modern racism and xenophobia are.
It's a common misconception. Wasn't even really until around the time of Queen Isabella (Might have the wrong queen as it's pretty late here) that fair skin was considered preferable and a sign of religious purity.
Italians and Irish weren't considered white just 100 years ago. Haven't you seen the photos of signs posted on US shops that read "Help Wanted, Irish and Italians need not apply!" ?