The results, released by Israel’s Central Elections Committee more than 48 hours after voting stations closed on Tuesday, gave Netanyahu’s Likud party 36 seats, compared with 35 for the Blue and White party, headed by former Israeli military chief of staff Benny Gantz. Netanyahu’s former coalition partner, the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judaism party, lost a seat in the final count.

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Even before the results were released, there was discussion in some quarters over whether to request a recount as small right-wing factions jockeyed to get into the parliament, called the Knesset.

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The New Right, a far-right party headed by the outgoing education minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, said it would “continue to fight” after it fell short of the vote threshold required to be represented in the Knesset by a mere 1,400 votes. The party put out a plea earlier in the day for members of the public to come forward with any reports of irregularities at polling stations.

Shaked had caused a stir during the election campaign with her campaign advertisement that showed her spritzing herself with a perfume called “Fascism,” intended to be a dig at left-wingers who decry her policies, such as reining in the Supreme Court, as fascist.

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Netanyahu is unlikely to be concerned about the exit of the New Right, given his fractious relationship with Bennett.

The prime minister is in the midst of political horse trading with possible partners as he seeks to build a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset. Analysts say he will want to guarantee his coalition partners stand by him regardless of whether the attorney general proceeds with plans to indict him on corruption charges in three criminal cases. Netanyahu has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

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Those indictments, which the attorney general says he will bring pending a hearing in which Netanyahu can defend himself, could leave the prime minister more beholden to his right-wing coalition partners than in the past. Netanyahu could face heightened pressure from some of them to fulfill his campaign pledge of extending Israeli sovereignty over Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal by much of the international community.

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Replacing the New Right party in the Knesset is a newly formed far-right alliance called the United Right, which includes the remnants of Shaked and Bennett’s previous party, Jewish Home, along with the extremist Jewish Power party. The United Right won five seats after Netanyahu pressured the other parties in the alliance to run jointly with Jewish Power, which even some Israelis on the far-right consider to be beyond the political pale.

With the United Right securing five seats in the parliament, it is possible that Jewish Power candidate Itamar Ben Gvir — who hangs a picture of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli American who massacred 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque in 1994 on his wall at home — will take a Knesset seat. But at the moment, Ben Gvir is No. 7 on the party’s list and would get a seat only if two other members of the alliance vacate theirs to assume ministerial positions.

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But there were indications that the alliance may be fraying and that Bezalel Smotrich of the United Right was maneuvering to reduce Jewish Power’s chances of entering parliament.

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Ben Gvir said that the alliance had “saved” Netanyahu’s right-wing government. “I am sure he will not stick a knife in my back,” he said.