Shimon is a member of Israel's Knesset. His party may have as little as two and as many as 30 if not more Knesset members. The number varies because Israel has made the entire country a single electoral district, in which a multitude of parties compete for Knesset seats on the basis of Proportional Representation.
This means that Shimon got into the Knesset not because more people voted for him than 
Israel has made the entire country a single electoral district.
for a rival candidate in a local district. No, he got into the Knesset because his party's slate of candidates received the number of national votes required to reach or surpass the
electoral threshold: today 2 percent of the total number of (legal) votes cast in a national election. This is something Shimon will keep in mind whenever he votes on a particular bill or measure on the Knesset's agenda. His future, as well as that of his party, depends on this. Indeed, if he plays the game right, he may eventually become a cabinet minister-the ambition of almost every Knesset Member (MK).
As a cabinet minister Shimon will have a more spacious office and a more numerous staff than he had as a Knesset "backbencher." His salary and his perks, his prestige and power, far exceed that of a mere MK.
After an election, Shimon’s government will have five or more rival parties participating in cabinet meetings. The decisions of his cabinet determine the laws and policies of the state, for in Israel's 61-year history, no government except the 1990 coalition government led Yitzhak Shamir has ever been toppled by a vote of no confidence. That occurred only because of an infamous so called "stinking maneuver" in which the Shas Party, a member of the cabinet, voted with the opposition Labor Party on a no-confidence motion. Even then, Shamir remained prime minister.
The cabinet deals with an abundance of diverse measures and controversial issues. How Shimon votes on a particular measure will affect the attitudes of those who voted, not for him but for his party, hence whether they will vote for his party in the next election. This 
A Member of Knesset may betray, with impunity, those who voted for his party. 
may influence how Shimon votes on a bill regardless of its merit. In fact, he may disregard the position he or his party took on any issue during the previous election campaign, for, as indicated, he is not individually accountable to the voters in any
election. In other words, he may betray, with impunity, those who voted for his party.
This is exactly what 23 Likud MKs did in October 2004, when, contrary to their pledge to the nation, they voted for the Labor Party's policy of unilateral disengagement from Gaza, a policy rejected by no less than 70 percent of the voters in the January 2003 election. In
short, the Likud, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, effectively nullified that election, a precedent for what is happening now in Israel under Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu.
Welcome to the democratic State of Israel.