If you are correct, it should be easy to quote examples of people identifying as Israeli between the fall of ancient Israel and the creation of modern Israel. Please do.

I assume you didn’t bother to finish the article since I explicitly addressed your point: “Now, if you change the argument from when Israeli identity began to when Israelites existed, Israelites appear first in the historical record —but only by a few decades. The Merneptah Stele refers to Israelites in 1208 BCE. An inscription at the Medinat Habu Temple in Luxor refers to the Peleset around 1150 BCE. But neither reference is definitive when asking who was first. Both groups existed before the Egyptians wrote about them.”