After halting stabber, mayor wins Internet

If you’re going to kick ass, then you are going to generate an Internet meme. That’s just how things go these days.

It took only a few hours after Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat neutralized a terrorist who had stabbed a pedestrian at a corner near the Israeli capital’s city hall on Sunday for the Internet to explode with images depicting him as a superhero and action film character.

Barkat was on his way to a meeting at the municipality’s headquarters when he happened upon the attack taking place in Tzahal Square. The mayor and his security detail jumped out of their car and quickly headed toward the assailant, an 18-year-old Palestinian residing in Israel illegally, who had attacked an Israel man named Avraham Goldshmidt.

As nearby pedestrians tried to run away from the danger, Barkat rushed in with his bodyguards.

The bodyguards aimed their guns at the assailant and ordered him to drop his knife, which he did. At that point, the mayor, who was an IDF paratrooper, moved in swiftly to take the young man down and pin him to the ground.

The mayor said he acted instinctively and that he figured he was not in danger with the assailant having dropped his knife and the bodyguards still training their guns on him.

Barkat may be playing down the heroism of his actions, but his admirers evidently feel that the occasion calls for some creativity. To them, he can take on Chuck Norris or rival Batman.

And it goes without saying that his name’s Barkat. Nir Barkat.