Excerpt: “Settler colonialism” has become the latest academic concept transformed by pundits into a bogeyman. Just since October 7, 2023, to cite a few examples, Time featured a cover story cautioning that application of the label to Israel “run[s] the risk of perpetuating antisemitism,” and the New York Times published multiple “explainers” of the term, describing it as only recently gaining in popularity. And in an op-ed for the Times, columnist Bret Stephens (2024) insists that the term focuses excessively on Israel. For him, deeming a country to be “settler colonial” means insisting that all “settlers” leave immediately, or else, buried in an aside, “Live under new rulers”.