JERUSALEM » When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called early elections five months ago, he aimed to strengthen his 68-member governing coalition, which was riven over West Bank settlement building and how to balance Israel’s democracy and Jewish character. He was particularly frustrated that as justice minister, Tzipi Livni, a onetime member of his party who veered sharply to the left, headed the powerful committee that controls legislation.

After an ugly election campaign and weeks of bitter negotiations, Netanyahu finalized an agreement Thursday giving him a new 61-member governing coalition, which will be riven over religious affairs and how to balance subsidies for soldiers and large ultra-Orthodox families. He ended up with Ayelet Shaked, a onetime member of his party who veered sharply to the right, as the justice minister who will also head the legislative committee.

The new coalition of conservative and religious parties is more ideologically coherent than the previous one, but with a single-seat majority in Parliament, analysts say it will have trouble tackling Israel’s domestic and international challenges — and perhaps even passing a budget.

"If we talk about agenda, it’s almost premature — it seems like an unworkable situation," said Tal Schneider, an Israeli political blogger, explaining that whenever coalition members travel abroad, are home sick, or even take bathroom breaks they could lose parliamentary votes.

"So the first thing they will have to do is they need to expand the government with another coalition partner," Schneider said. "So they’re going back into the negotiating room. It’s like a permanent campaign; it’s never going to end."

A spokesman for Netanyahu’s Likud Party said Thursday he was reserving the post of foreign minister for Isaac Herzog of the center-left Zionist Union in hopes of building a broad national-unity government. But Herzog said his faction had "no intention of saving Netanyahu from the hole he has dug for himself" and promised instead to lead "a fighting, consolidated, strong opposition."

With the government slated to be sworn in Wednesday, Israeli news sites reported that its first act would be to overturn a law limiting the number of ministers to 18, to give Likud members disgruntled over top jobs going to other parties more seats at the table. That is expected to pass easily. It may be the only thing that does.

Schneider noted on her blog that for the first time in memory, there had been no demands made in coalition talks regarding the Palestinian peace process or other foreign-policy concerns, though the new government’s bylaws may yet outline positions on those issues.

After a campaign season in which relations with the White House badly deteriorated, President Barack Obama on Thursday congratulated Netanyahu in a statement that stressed "the importance of pursuing a two-state solution." But Palestinian leaders had roundly denounced the coalition as racist and extremist, promising to continue pressing their case at the United Nations and International Criminal Court.

"This government will set its sights on killing and reinforcing settlement activities," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. "The time is well overdue for the international community to face the reality and hold Israel accountable for the crimes and violations made against our people."

Even if the new government does not return to negotiations with the Palestinians, its policies will affect them on the ground.

Uri Ariel, the far-right settler from the Jewish Home party, lost the Housing Ministry, where his frequent advancing of settlement construction infuriated Washington, Europe and sometimes even Netanyahu. But while housing will be in the hands of the more centrist Kulanu faction, which is likely to focus building inside Israel’s 1948 territory, Uriel will still have sway over settlements through his new post as agriculture minister with control over the World Zionist Organization’s settlement division.

The Jewish Home, which staunchly opposes a Palestinian state, will also be in charge of the civil administration, which oversees interaction with Palestinians in the West Bank. The party has called for improving roads and services for both Palestinians and settlers there.

The new government’s top agenda item, though, seems to be reducing the cost of housing, which the new finance minister, Moshe Kahlon of Kulanu, plans to do by breaking up monopolistic banks and land ownership. Those sweeping reforms have broad backing in the coalition and the opposition, though powerful outside interests will fight them fiercely.

"What’s interesting, really, about this government is it has a very strong and clear domestic economic policy," said Einat Wilf, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, noting that Kahlon had wrangled important conditions from Netanyahu to pave the way for his plan. "If the government does nothing but accomplish those reforms, it would be one of the most transformative governments in Israeli history."

First Kahlon will have to pass a budget, made more difficult by the estimated $2 billion or more promised parties in the coalition. Thursday’s agreement with Jewish Home, for example, adds $260 million to increase soldiers’ salaries, plus money for Ariel University in the West Bank, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas finagled a cancellation of value-added tax on basic foodstuffs. Kahlon, for his part, bought himself a 160-day window to pull it together.

On contentious domestic matters like the nationality bill that critics say would disenfranchise Arab citizens, and efforts to neuter Israel’s Supreme Court, experts expect more noise than action. Shaked, the new justice minister, is an ardent advocate of both, but Kahlon is not on board.

"There are strong views within the coalition, but they tend to be strong views that cancel each other out," said Wilf, a former member of Parliament.

Shaked, at 39 and with only two years in the legislature, has suddenly become the government’s highest-ranking woman — and its lightning rod. Palestinians, and many liberal Israelis, on Thursday expressed particular umbrage at her appointment.

Last summer, Shaked was accused of promoting genocide after she posted on Facebook an old article that described all Palestinians as "enemy combatants," called youths who become "martyrs" while attacking Israelis "snakes," and said their mothers should "follow in their sons’ footsteps."

Amid widespread criticism of the election campaign and coalition-negotiation process, the issue of government reform has gained traction. But despite widening support, Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israeli Democracy Institute and, a former Parliament member, said that it would happen only if Netanyahu persuaded Herzog to join the government, or in conjunction with yet another early election to be held under the new system.

"It’s never going to happen as long as we have a 61 coalition," he said, in what is quickly becoming an Israeli mantra.