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The Scranton mayor has detailed positions on Israeli military aid, munitions production, and antisemitism. She has never publicly said the word “Palestinian.”

Second in a series on campaign finance and foreign policy in the PA-8 congressional race

Scranton, Lackawanna County

When Paige Cognetti sat down with Jewish Insider in January to lay out her foreign policy vision, she didn’t hedge.

She called “the Israel question” “very simple.” She said she “vehemently” supports Israel’s right to defend itself. She pledged to protect military aid and push reauthorization of the U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding through 2028. She touted a Scranton-area munitions plant that produces shells shipped to Israel and Ukraine — “We’re very proud of that.” She spoke at length about antisemitism, referencing the arson attack on Governor Shapiro’s home. She said Israel is “surrounded by people who do not believe they should exist” and vowed the United States “will continue to be its most staunch ally.”

She covered a lot of ground. Military aid. Munitions. Antisemitism legislation. The MOU. And in the entire interview — the only in-depth public accounting of her Israel-Palestine positions — she never once said the word “Palestinian.”

Tens of Thousands + Dead. Zero Acknowledgment.

Not the word. Not the people. Not the dead.

By the time Cognetti gave that interview, the scale of the killing in Gaza was not in dispute — only the magnitude. Gaza’s health ministry had recorded more than 70,000 killed, a figure the IDF itself publicly accepted for the first time in January 2026. Peer-reviewed research published in The Lancet estimated 75,200 violent deaths through early January 2025 alone — 35% higher than official counts for the same period — and that was before the deadliest phases of the war. Demographic modeling by the Max Planck Institute placed total violent deaths between 100,000 and 126,000. When indirect deaths from famine, the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, and preventable disease are factored in, the numbers climb far higher: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese cited a figure of 680,000 at a September 2025 Geneva briefing, based on a study by researchers Hil and Polya that applied indirect mortality ratios from comparable conflicts. That upper-range estimate is debated. What isn’t debated is that something unprecedented happened in Gaza, and Cognetti has had nothing to say about it.

Cognetti acknowledged none of it. No civilian casualties at any scale. No ICJ proceedings — South Africa’s genocide case, which the court found plausible enough to order provisional measures. No ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. No occupation. No conditioning aid on human rights. Not even a name for the people on the other end of the shells she’s proud Scranton produces.

The closest she came: humanitarian aid should “get to the people who need it.” She didn’t say who those people are.

$13,015 From J Street. $0 From Palestinian Americans.

Her donor base tells the same story her words do.

As the Pocono Review reported earlier this week, nearly 70% of Cognetti’s individual campaign dollars come from outside Pennsylvania — with California, New York, and D.C. outpacing the actual district by a wide margin. That same deep dive into 1,514 itemized FEC receipts showed where her pro-Israel money comes from: J Street PAC contributed $13,015 across 18 transactions, and Cognetti’s campaign pays merchant processing fees to J Street for routing donations through their platform. She’s endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel. She fundraises through EMILY’s List ($15,300) and the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund ($14,000).

One donor stands out. Joseph Nadis of White Plains, New York, gave $3,500. Nadis is the Chief Development Officer at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a Jerusalem-based institution. Before Pardes, he worked at AIPAC — the same organization backing Cognetti’s opponent, Rob Bresnahan — and the Jerusalem Foundation. A former AIPAC employee is directly funding a candidate who calls the Israel question “very simple.”

Charles Cohen of Pittston maxed out at $7,000. Cohen runs Benco Dental, the country’s largest independently owned dental distributor, and sits on the board of the Jewish Community Alliance of Wilkes-Barre — one of Cognetti’s few in-district max donors.

On the other side of the ledger: nothing. No contributions from the Arab American Institute, CAIR, Americans for Justice in Palestine, or any identifiable Arab-American, Muslim-American, or Palestinian-American organization or donor appear anywhere in her filings. A whole community locked out of a candidate’s fundraising — the same community most directly affected by the positions she’s staking out.

NEPA Isn’t Just Scranton Anymore

The 8th Congressional District covers Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Pike counties plus parts of Monroe — from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre to Hazleton, Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Honesdale, and Milford. Its demographics have shifted. Latino, South Asian, and Middle Eastern populations have grown, particularly in the Poconos and the Hazleton corridor.

Cognetti says “the Israel question” is “very simple.” For constituents with family in the region, who’ve watched the footage, who’ve attended vigils in Stroudsburg or Wilkes-Barre — it isn’t. A candidate with detailed positions on military aid and munitions who can’t say “Palestinian” is telling those constituents exactly where they rank.

‘We’re Very Proud of That’

That line deserves its own weight.

Cognetti specifically touted the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant — operated by General Dynamics, producing 155mm artillery shells — as a source of community pride. “It’s really important to us in northeastern Pennsylvania that we defend ourselves, defend our military personnel at home and abroad.”

The plant is a significant local employer. Its shells have been documented by international observers in use in Gaza. A candidate can champion local jobs. But bragging about producing the weapons while refusing to name the people they’re landing on is a choice. Voters in Dunmore, Pittston, Old Forge, and Tobyhanna are entitled to notice it.

Who Does ‘NEPA First’ Include?

Nothing here is illegal. Cognetti’s positions sit comfortably in the Democratic Party’s pro-Israel mainstream. Her fundraising through J Street and the DCCC apparatus is standard. Her silence on Palestinians is shared by plenty of candidates navigating a divided party.

But voters across the 8th District aren’t picking a national position paper. They’re picking a representative. And their potential representative will go on the record about Israeli military aid, munitions, security, and antisemitism — but has never, in any public forum the Pocono Review could find, acknowledged that Palestinians exist as a people with rights, that Palestinian civilians have died in numbers that peer-reviewed journals are still trying to pin down, or that the war in Gaza warrants more than a vague nod to unnamed “people who need” aid.

Her slogan says “NEPA first.” Her record raises a question she hasn’t answered: which NEPA?

The Pocono Review contacted the Cognetti campaign for comment prior to publication. This article will be updated with any response received.

Pocono Review covers Monroe, Wayne, Pike, Carbon, Lackawanna, and Luzerne counties. This is the second in a series on the PA-8 congressional race. Read the first: “70% of Cognetti’s Campaign Cash Comes From Outside Pennsylvania.”