Israel: a "lawful state"?

I suppose the big news is that it appears that an extreme settler group has tried to kill Peace Now activist and Haaretz columnist Professor Ze'ev Sternhell.

Police suspect Jewish extremists of having carried out the pipe bomb attack earlier in the day.

But the thing I want to focus on is the bizarre comment made by Tzipi Livni following the bomb attack:

At a ceremony marking the Rosh Hashanah holiday at the Foreign Ministry, Livni went on to say that "the state of Israel is a lawful state, and moreover, it is populated by a society with values. It is the responsibility of the government and the Israeli society to renounce such phenomena as soon as the rear their heads."

Isn't that bizarre? Isn't it strange a leader saying that a state is "lawful". Most leaders take such things for granted. I can only guess as to why she would say such a strange thing but I think it has to do with that fact that the State of Israel is nothing like lawful. It's just something I noticed, that's all.