Peres joins Facebook, heads to Hollywood

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

Israeli President Shimon Peres launches his Facebook page with the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in this handout photo released to Reuters by the Office of the President March 6, 2012. REUTERS photo

Israeli President Shimon Peres has officially joined Facebook with a flashy electro-pop video urging people to "Be my friend, for Peace," as he visits California.

The 88-year-old launched his Facebook page at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters, before heading south for Hollywood where he is to meet Dreamworks Animation bosses Friday.

In a jump-cut video set to a thumping beat, Peres is shown at a lectern asking online surfers to be his Facebook "friend," while archive footage shows him at various points in his long political career.

"I am truly excited to write the first post on my wall. I hope to find this page to be a place where peace dreamers and believers speak up and share their stories and experiences with me," he wrote.

"Facebook empowers us. So let's dare to believe, start to change our world and create a better tomorrow. I want to hear your voice," he said on the page, launched on Tuesday, according to an Israeli consulate spokeswoman.

Peres travelled to California after accompanying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week to Washington, where the Israeli premier met President Barack Obama in the White House.

On Thursday he was due to speak in Beverly Hills, before heading Friday morning to the headquarters of Dreamworks Animation in Glendale, just outside Los Angeles.

On the eve of his LA visit an Israeli flag outside the offices of a University of California, Riverside Jewish organization was defaced with the word "terrorists" scrawled on it.

Peres is due to fly home Sunday. His Facebook page and video can be seen at: www.facebook.com/pages/Shimon-Peres/240142419406136?sk=app_129459460512979.