Shin Bet ties with Israeli terrorist revealed

A suspected murderer has been working for Israel's general security service as a source of information on ultra-right elements, Israeli media reveal.

Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, suspected of committing a series of terror attacks over the past 12 years, had been contacted by the Shin Bet to spy on the extreme right-wing elements, Yedioth Ahronoth daily revealed Friday.

A report published by the Israeli paper noted the cooperation between the general security service and Teitel did not last more than several months as they did not yield much.

Shin Bet officials contacted Teitel in order to use him as a source of information, after he had already been suspected of involvement in the 1997 murder of two Palestinians, the report added.

The Israeli spy agency confirmed that it had been in touch with Teitel, an American immigrant, for several months.

"Yaakov Teitel was handled by the Shin Bet even after his interrogation in the year 2000," the agency said in a statement.

"As part of our inspection of him and in light of his ties with extreme right-wing elements, we held several meetings with him, which did not yield a thing, and immediately afterwards the ties were cut."

On Sunday, it was confirmed that the 35-year-old Teitel had been arrested for allegedly carrying out a series of acts of terror inside Israel over the past few years.

Teitel's suspicions of being behind the murder of two Palestinians is topped by those of assaulting secular historian Professor Ze'ev Sternhell and a teen from a messianic (pro-Jesus Jewish) family in Ariel, placing explosives as well as the murder of two traffic police officers.