Why did the Phoenician city-states remain politically separate from one another?

The Phoenician city-states remained politically separate because there was no overarching sense of political unity to bind them together. While the cities shared a common language and cultural characteristics, they typically identified themselves by their individual city-states rather than as a single, unified people.12

Each major city, such as Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre, maintained its own government and religious deities. Although these cities occasionally fell under common rule when they were vassals of adjacent empires, or formed limited federal bonds under Persian influence, a large-scale federation was never achieved.12