1, The paper ballots usually favor Likud, and especially disfavor the Arab parties and the Chareidi parties – since most of them are cast by soldiers.
2. If Balad has allied it self with another Arab party, and if Meretz had allied itself with another far-left party (e.g. Labor, which barely passed the threshold), the result would probably have been another stalemate.
3. While the Chareidi parties have options other than supporting Likud (and have some bargaining power with Netanyahu), the “Religious Zionist” party does not, so if Netanyahu rejects any of their demands they have no choice but to accept. This is because the left wing does not have to be viciously anti-Chareidi (and in the past, the Labor party tried to avoid alienating the Chareidi), whereas the “Religious Zionists” demands (such as “transfer”,i.e., “ethnic cleansing” of Arabs) are intolerable to the groups that will now be in opposition.