The minimum threshold for Knesset had been adjusted a number of times over the years, eventually being raised to the current 2%, and recently attempts were made to bump it up to 4%. It is thought that raising the threshold would make the government more stable by ridding the government of small parties that end up wielding more power than they should naturally have, giving them the ability to make "unreasonable" demands.
MK Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) just proposed a bill by which the threshold would move in the opposite direction. Litzman would do away with the threshold entirely. Litzman believes, it seems, in evolution and natural selection, and believes that the natural threshold would do a better job at keeping the government stable and small parties out.
Litzman says that the threshold should be natural - take all the valid votes from the elections, divide by 120 (number of Knesset seats), and whichever parties garnered enough votes to reach that number would get the appropriate number of seats based on votes. Litzman even says that history has shown that raising the minimum threshold repeatedly has not stopped small parties form getting in, nor has it made the government more stable.
Doing away with the minimum threshold would also increase the number of voters, as votes would not be thrown away. All valid votes would be counted and used towards determining actual Knesset seats. This would better empower the voter, and the results of elections would be a truer reflection of the voters will.
(source: Bechadrei)
I see the benefit to Litzman's proposal, as far as ensuring people's votes actually count, but a. it has no chance of passing as it goes against the trend of the government and won't be likely to garner support and b. since the electoral system is lousy anyway, the way the parliamentary system works here, this is an exercise in futility. Nothing will improve the system until they make regional voting with a two party system.
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