Were the Babylonians part of the Israelite people?

AnswerThe Israelites were a West Semitic people, closely related to the Canaanites, Aramites and other neighbours. From about 2200 BCE, the early Babylonians were also Semitic, but not a West Semitic People. The Chaldeans, often called Babylonians, were Southern Semitic, or Arabian, people who settled near Babylon in the eighth century BCE.

So, the Babylonians were ethnically close to the Israelites, but not as much so as the people of Aram, Edom or Moab, and other close neighbours of Israel.