Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed coalition politics for the delay in implementing a deal reached earlier this year to create a  designated prayer section for non-Orthodox worshipers at the Western Wall.

“It works in fits and starts, starts and fits,” he said of his government’s ability to reach a consensus on disputed actions, citing as an example a lengthy fight over who should control a vast natural gas field discovered in 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea west of Haifa.

“It is going to take time” to implement the agreement, he told journalists attending a conference of Jewish media from around the world on Dec. 6. “When I say the Kotel is a wall for all Jewish people I mean it.”