On Thursday, October 12, at 7:00pm, The Brooklyn Nets will play a preseason game against the Israeli National League's Maccabi Ra’anana, in the wake of an uprecedented surprise attack on the Israeli government on Saturday.
Founded in 1980, Maccabi Ra'anana won the Israeli 2nd Division championship of the 1995–96 season. The club then competed in Israel's top-level Israeli Super League for the first time in the 1996–97 season.
Maccabi Ra'anana also finished as the runner-up of the Israeli Super League in the 1999–00 season. And in the 2001–02 season, they competed in the Pan-European third-level competition, the FIBA Korac Cup.
In 2002, due to financial problems, the club merged with Hapoel Herzliya, which was then renamed to Bnei Hasharon. But after the merger of the two clubs ended in 2011, the club began again competing under its original Maccabi Ra'anana name. Maccabi Ra'anana won the Israeli Basketball Association Cup (Israel's 2nd Division Cup), in the 2011–12 season.
In 2022, Maccabi Ra'anana made a preseason tour through the United States to play against three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams: the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Israeli team lost all three games.
To get tickets to the game of the Nets against the Ra'anana, go here.
Thursday's game comes at a very tenuous time for the Israeli team, as just three days ago, on October 7, the Muslim militant group Hamas launched thousands of missiles into Israel from Gaza in a surprise attack on the government.
The attack was launched on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kipper War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria, and comes after decades of internationally backed occupation by the Israelis against the Palestinian people and only three weeks after a meeting between U.S. President Biden and Israeli Prime Ministery Bibi Netanyahu to broker a new peace agreement, reported The Associated Press.
The death toll of Israelis has climbed to more than 900 people, with another 2,500 injured, reported ABC News. Among the dead are at least 11 American citizens, President Biden said Monday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry also said on Monday that at least 560 Palestinian people have been killed and 2,900 others injured in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Saturday.
Biden has stated the U.S. stands with the state of Israel.
