A mere 10 days on, the government’s historic decision to create an egalitarian prayer area at the Western Wall plaza that will serve the pluralistic streams of Judaism appears much feebler. Many factors in the winds are threatening to make it a decision that exists on paper only.

… The long list of obstacles the framework has to overcome led some officials who are involved in the matter to guess this week that at best, it would take a year and a half to implement the government’s historic decision — an eternity in Israeli political terms. In a year and a half governments can rise and fall, and ministers, decisions, and plans can be changed or substituted.

Meanwhile, all sides in this years-long dispute are drawing up a balance sheet, and it looks like in the struggle for the Western Wall, almost no one is getting everything they want. Netanyahu bought time, scored points with the Reform and Conservatives without scuffling with the haredim, and even managed to evade the trap of a High Court of Justice ruling. The prevailing assessment among legal scholars is that if no agreement is reached, the High Court would compel the state to follow instructions that would mean giving Women of the Wall and all streams of Judaism a much more egalitarian standing at the main Western Wall plaza, and Netanyahu would find himself in a coalition crisis. …