In the best traditions of international diplomacy, the advisers and spokesmen were already heavily pre-briefing this meeting. Like an episode of Friends, this was billed as “The One Where Barack and Bibi Get Back Together.”

Bibi—otherwise known as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—had been emulating Ross Geller. He was on a break. He did his Iran stuff, he spent a bit too much time with the Republicans. But after a meeting at the White House on Monday with U.S. President Barack Obama, the two leaders are an item again.

They share a record-breaking long-term relationship. No other U.S. President and Israeli Prime Minister have worked together for so long. And they are stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.

The truth is that the U.S.-Israel relationship is far too important for either leader to let a small disagreement get in the way of the serious business of achieving shared strategic objectives in the Middle East. Context is everything. To understand Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions over the Iran deal or the current stalemate with the Palestinians you have to pan out and survey the wider region and the alarming pace at which the political map is crumbling.

Arguably Netanyahu is the one who put the Iran nuclear issue front and centre. Thanks to his tireless campaigning and veiled threats of military action, the P5+1—the U.S., U.K., China, France, Russia and Germany—were spurred into action. Netanyahu may not like the final deal, but making a go of it now is by far the least worst option. Asked why he continued his campaign even after the deal was done, running an extra futile lap of honor that seemed doomed to failure, Netanyahu says he wanted to remind the American people that Iran was their enemy.

He feared that, had he gone quiet when the deal was signed, no one would have remembered his message to the world about Iran’s belligerent intentions. But the important result of yesterday’s meeting in the Oval Office is that both parties have now moved on. The emotional phase is over. The focused, constructive phase has started where the U.S. and Israel can work together to ensure the deal delivers and the agreement to establish a joint U.S.-Israeli task force to monitor implementation is a very good step forward.

Read the article in full at Newsweek.