Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) addressed the International Bible Contest on Thursday, including a veiled reference to controversial comments by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan.

Last week, during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Golan seemingly compared modern-day Israel to pre-Holocaust Europe, saying the trends in Israel frightened him.

“If there is something that scares me about the memory of the Holocaust, it is the identification of horrifying processes that occurred in Europe in general and Germany in particular – 70, 80 and 90 years ago – and finding evidence of them here among us, today, in 2016,” he said.

On Thursday Bennett indirectly addressed Golan’s comments, and the firestorm of controversy they created.

“We love our country, so let’s end this festival of self-flagellation. Let’s get rid of these generalizations against our people, which has been struggling for more than half a year against this terrible terror wave. Our amazing people is doing this [standing up to terror] not in savage way, but with dignity; not in an excessive manner, but with amazing responsibility.”

“We need to stop this slandering of ourselves. The rest of the world does it well enough. The people of Israel are strong and just. The average Israelis, who dealt with the terror wave this year, deserve a medal. There is no people more amazing that ours.”