Israeli system is not the best example

On these pages, I have made no bones about the fact I support the idea of introducing a form of proportional representation to be used for both federal and provincial elections.
Proportional representation (PR) is a system where parties receive a number of seats based on their percentage of the overall vote. Unfortunately, there is one current example that may scare people away from PR and that is what is currently happening in Israel.
Israel's election occurred a couple days ago. By now, Canadians would know who the winners (heck, we would have known that night).
Instead, the Israelis will spend the next couple weeks waiting to see which parties will work together with the two main parties to form a coalition (where have we heard that word before) government.
The Israeli Knesset (parliament) has 120 seats and all are awarded based on a straight PR, with each party receiving a corresponding number of seats to their vote percentage. These seats are given to people on the lists of the various parties. There are no ridings.
In this election, the ruling Kadima party received 28 seats, while its chief rival, the Likud, scored 27. That's a long way from a majority of 61.
Currently, Israel requires parties to get at least two per cent of the vote. That means 12 parties will get at least a couple seats in the Knesset. That makes for a great deal of arm-twisting to get other parties to work with the main ones and form a government.
However, this example is not how it would happen here.
Firstly, Canada should follow the New Zealand model where some members are elected in ridings, and the rest are at-large MPs, awarded to top out each party's total to the number they deserve.
Secondly, like New Zealand, Canada should use a higher threshold to receive seats. I like five per cent. This means, compared to the last election, only five parties would win seats, meaning greater stability in Parliament.
And finally, and this is an addition of my own, I believe all parties have to declare, going into an election, which parties they would work with in a coalition, thus taking away a lot of the post-election guess work of who would shack up with whom because it's already known.
While the Israeli situation is crazy and unstable, don't think of it as a good example of PR.