The defeat of Germany in the June 2026 United Nations Security Council (UNSC) elections for the 2027–2028 term has sent shockwaves. They lost their race to Portugal and Austria for one of the two elected (non-permanent) seats, securing merely 104 votes against Portugal’s 134 and Austria’s 131. This is Germany’s first loss in the UNSC elections.

While many reasons have been put forth for the defeat of this European heavyweight, the main reason seems to be the uncritical support of Germany to Israel, especially killing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, mainly women and children, without accountability. The other, and probably less talked about reason, is that, even before the Ukraine war started, in their last stint in the UNSC (2019-2020), Germany adopted an aggressive, almost irascible, approach vis-à-vis China and Russia making them more determined to stop Germany. The Ukraine and Gaza war only precipitated this anti-Germany mood.

Ironically, Israel proved to be the nemesis in 2020, too, when Canada’s consistently pro-Israel voting record contributed to its defeat in the 2020 UNSC elections. Though Canada changed their stand a few months before the elections to appear more pro-Palestinian, nobody bought this flip-flop. When the then Canadian foreign minister asked my assessment a few days before UNSC elections, at a time when India was standing unopposed for the sole Asian seat, I told him that Canada has some way to go to get to the magic 2/3rd majority. They finally got 108 votes and........

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