Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel includes Times of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag and political analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, with Jessica Steinberg as your host.

Herschlag and Rettig Gur discuss blogs written by former Israel ambassador Michael Oren and American sociologist Samuel Heilman, examining the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Oren looks at how the US used the Middle East peace process in the 1970s to reclaim its role as peacemaker post Vietnam, suggesting it can do the same again, using the Abraham Accords as a starting point.

Meanwhile, sociologist Heilman offers five lessons the Afghanistan withdrawal can teach to democracies.

Finally, Herschlag and Rettig Gur discuss Israel's new mother by surrogacy, Labor Party head Merav Michaeli, an outspoken champion of women's right to opt-out of motherhood, who could have averted a backlash with more transparency about her plans, suggests blogger Naomi Chazan.

Discussed articles include:

The Taliban win forces the question: What’s next for the US?

5 Afghan lessons (‘the US as unreliable ally’ is not one of them)

Merav Michaeli should have been up front about the surrogate baby

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IMAGE: Paratroopers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division help facilitate the safe evacuation of U.S. citizens, Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and other at-risk Afghans out of Afghanistan, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. (Sgt. Jillian G. Hix/U.S. Army via AP)

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