3.25% separate: The Right has already paid for its mistake once - will it repeat it? | Yossi Ahimeir

3.25 - this is the most significant number in the upcoming Knesset elections. The electoral threshold. This is the number that will determine who goes to the Knesset and who goes to the trash. It is not about the big parties, but about the small ones that are hovering above the threshold and below it, according to the polls, of course. Some say it is too high and some say it is appropriate. Its purpose - to prevent tiny lists from being represented in the legislature.

In the distant past, the threshold stood at one percent, and in the 1992 elections, for the 13th Knesset, the percentage was raised to 1.5. About ten lists did not pass it and thousands of votes were not counted. Specifically, a serious party, Tehiya led by Geula Cohen and Yuval Ne'eman, almost skipped over it, but did not. The tens of thousands of votes given to it went to waste.

If Tehiya had passed the electoral threshold, which was low at the time, the Right camp would have won more mandates, and the Likud party led by Yitzhak Shamir - even though the number of votes it received was lower than the number of votes received by Labor - would have continued in power, and the face of history would have been completely different. Since then we have had 13 more Knessets, the percentage has been raised significantly, which does not deter fringe lists from investing and running.

When there are more such parties on the Right side, it is clear that the big party, Likud, would want them to pass the electoral threshold. This way, right-wing votes will not be wasted within the camp, and the chance to remain in power will increase. However, the electoral threshold has a clear statement: democracy is not anarchy, where every Tom, Dick, and Harry can set up a delusional list with a not-bad chance of slipping into the Knesset and turning it into a mixed multitude of Knesset members with great difficulty in forming a coalition. Therefore, the Likud and Yamina parties must convince their potential voters not to waste their votes on vanity lists.

Likud, for example, must convince its supporters - especially those among them who are disappointed with the way it has conducted itself in the past four years - that criticism should be left inside the party house by choosing a better team (yes, today in the primaries), and not to cast their lot with a party that suddenly appeared, a party that has no roots, that has no chance of passing the electoral threshold. Their voters' votes will be thrown in the trash, they will not be able to influence the composition of the Knesset and the government.

In 1992, it was Tehiya and Rabbi Levinger (who set up his own list), who brought down the Shamir government. This empowering leader, who did not give up a centimeter of the land of Israel, was not good enough for them. The national camp committed hara-kiri, we got Oslo and the hundreds of murdered. Later, Geula Cohen repented for her sin and for the downfall of the Right camp due to her fault.

A small number of parties is sufficient to represent the spectrum of opinions and ideologies in the public. This is the rationale behind the high electoral threshold. It should deter delusional organizations that gain temporary publicity. And not just delusional parties. In this election, we also see parties in the style of Tehiya, with experienced figures, running separately from the mother parties.

This is especially prominent on the Right side. Figures like Erdan, Edelstein, Hendel, Tropper, Feiglin, Vilf, Gantz, pretend to present new lists without the public knowing what really distinguishes them from Likud and the Center. A feeling festers in the heart that the motive is mainly vengeful. One did not get a position he desired, the second was dismissed from some position, the third dropped completely in the polls, the fifth fled a sinking ship, and so on.

It can be assumed that if any of them passes the electoral threshold, they will join a coalition led by Likud, if it manages to maintain its power and even increase it. But who will guarantee to the voter that the miracle will happen and the two, Erdan and Edelstein, will return to the Knesset with two more from their list (at the moment even their names are unknown)? Who is naive and will give their vote to them as a political gamble?

One of the claims against Likud is that its list in the outgoing Knesset is not attractive, that it is represented by people lacking grace, that the glorious legacy of Ze'ev Jabotinsky is far from them. There is some truth in this. Look at the movement's lists in past years, led by Begin and Shamir, and see the difference.

But today, in the primaries taking place across the country, it is possible to fix something, to bring about the assembly of a more worthy, fresh list, and thereby deter the potential voter from giving their vote to wasted lists. It is in the hands of the 130,000 Likud members.