The surveillance footage is dramatic. Crowds frantically dispersing away from a knife-wielding terrorist after he punctures his victim. Moments later, one man enters the frame boldly striding through the human traffic toward the attacker, his contrasting white dress shirt somehow presaging the following act of heroism. Two bodyguards flank the man, yet even they are one step behind. Then, in the middle of the intersection, the three men confront the assailant with a gun drawn. The terrorist drops the knife, and like a lion pouncing on its prey, the mayor of Jerusalem tackles the terrorist to the pavement.

The video was recorded on Sunday afternoon at one of the busiest intersections in Jerusalem, just outside the northwest corner of the Old City. Sunday being a normal workday in Israel, Mayor Nir Barkat was driving to his office for a meeting. Moments before they arrived at city hall, his driver noticed a commotion. Immediately, Barkat got out of the vehicle with his bodyguards and moved toward the scene.

It took a mere 17 seconds from the time the knife plunged into the back of the Abraham Goldstein, the Jewish victim, to when Barkat first enters the frame pacing defiantly toward the attacker.

While Barkat had a security outfit with him, there is no doubt from the footage who led the charge to the attacker. As Barkat later recounted, this was an act of sheer intuition.

Mayor Nir Barkat takes down terrorist.

“In moments like these, facing a terrorist, you act mainly by intuition and do what anyone would be expected to do—take out the terrorist,” wrote the mayor in Israel Hayom on Monday. Later, he wrote, “Anyone who tries to attack us will pay dearly. You can’t hesitate in the face of terrorism.”

Moments after neutralizing the attacker, Barkat scanned the environment to see if there were other threats in the area. Deeming it safe, he was the first to attend to the victim, who was attacked for no reason apart from his being a Jew. Putting his arms around Abraham Goldstein, Barkat brought him to the sidewalk and sat with him as they waited for the emergency services to arrive.

Certainly, Mayor Barkat’s six-year term in the Israel Defense Forces as a paratrooper educated him on how to take down terrorists, and even hardened him to the reality of death and war. However, this was a public servant who took his oath to serve the public of Jerusalem seriously, even putting himself in harm’s way.

Truly, the action of Jerusalem’s mayor on Sunday is one of the most heroic achievements by a public servant in recent memory.

This was not the first time Nir Barkat was personally confronted with a terrorist attack. Eleven years ago, to the very day of Sunday’s attack, Barkat witnessed a Jerusalem bus explode on the street adjacent to Liberty Bell Park. In his words, “I stopped my car and ran like crazy toward it, among the dead and wounded.” He found a young lady losing a lot of blood and used his hands to stop the flow before emergency services arrived.

Again, Nir Barkat intuitively ran toward the attack to help in any way he could.

In an age when some Western officials promote a strategy of “leading from behind” or “strategic patience” in the face of evil, Mayor Barkat’s actions to protect and lead from the front are refreshing.

Certainly, every public official does not need to face down a terrorist to be considered a leader. But every leader should care more for those he governs than for himself. And this habitual selflessness should develop to the point that it becomes intuitive as it has with Nir Barkat.

Seldom do democratic elections in Israel result in the incumbent returning to power. However, with the Jerusalem municipal elections in 2013, it seems the public made the right choice. You may disagree with his politics, even his strategies, but when a leader puts his own life at risk to serve his people, he is easy to follow.