Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home, spoke on Tuesday evening at the party’s headquarters in Kfar Maccabiah, as exit polls showed that his party won eight seats in the 20th Knesset.

In his remarks, Bennett hailed the emerging results as a victory for the nationalist camp, despite the fact that the Jewish Home dropped in the last elections, with some suggesting that the Likud had taken away votes from the party over the past few days.

“We are not afraid of a long path. We run to long distances, we are not afraid and we are not lowering our heads. We love the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and we all love the Torah of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF,” Bennett said.

“They asked me a few minutes ago whether I’m disappointed in our public, in religious Zionism, and I say – the opposite is true,” he continued. “I’m proud of religious Zionism, I am proud of the religious Zionists because they are a truly ideological public.”

The comments came after Bennett called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and congratulated him on the results of the exit polls.

“They agreed to begin accelerated negotiations for establishing a national government and working in cooperation for the security of the state of Israel and the nation of Israel,” said the Jewish Home.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) said after the exit polls came out that “the people of Israel elected the right. The people of are Israel are not afraid of a long path, we are confident that the way of the Jewish Home is the right one.”