Israel arrests extremist who targeted Arabs, Jews
JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities have arrested a Jewish-American extremist suspected of carrying out a series of high-profile hate crimes, security officials said yesterday.
Police and Shin Bet security forces say Jack Teitel, 37, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish West Bank settler, was behind the killing of two Arabs, the targeting of a peace activist, and an attack on a breakaway Jewish sect over a period of 12 years.
Authorities originally suspected an extremist Jewish underground for some of the attacks. But acquaintances described Teitel, a father of four, as a lone wolf, and authorities say he acted alone. Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franco said Teitel grew up on US military bases and immigrated to Israel from Florida.
Franco said that a joint police and Shin Bet operation caught Teitel earlier this month, and that he confessed to the crimes.
“He is like a serial killer,’’ police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “This guy was a Jewish terrorist who targeted different types of people.’’
