given to United Torah Judaism if it would join the government. The post was later given to Labor's Isaac Herzog. Olmert took over as acting prime minister of Israel after Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke. On 24 May 2006, Olmert was invited to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He stated that his government would proceed with the disengagement plan if it could not come to agreement with the Palestinians. Olmert was the third Israeli prime minister to have been invited to speak at a joint session of Congress. Following the 2006 Lebanon War, Olmert's popularity ratings fell and, on 15 September 2006, former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon publicly stated that Olmert should resign. In May 2007, Olmert's approval rating fell to 3%, and he became the subject of a Google Bomb for the Hebrew for "miserable failure". On 9 December 2006, Olmert stated that he could not rule out the possibility of a military attack against Iran, and called for the international community to step up action against that country. He called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated threats to destroy Israel "absolutely criminal", and said that he expected "more dramatic steps to be taken". In an interview with German TV network Sat.1 on 11 December 2006, Olmert included Israel in a list of nuclear powers, saying: "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly, threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia?" He immediately attempted to backtrack, insisting that Israel's doggedly held position of nuclear weapons ambiguity had not changed. He nonetheless came under harsh criticism from both ends of the Israeli political spectrum due to the perceived threat to Israel's policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear status. On 2 May 2007, the Winograd Commission accused Olmert of failing to properly manage the 2006 Lebanese War, which prompted a mass rally of over 100,000 people calling for his resignation. Olmert welcomed the Arab League's 2007 re-endorsement of the Arab Peace Initiative. Olmert wrote in The Guardian newspaper that Israel was ready to make "painful concessions" to achieve peace with the Palestinians. "I take the offer of full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world seriously; and I am ready to discuss the Arab peace initiative in an open and sincere manner. Working with our Jordanian