Israeli President Visits Facebook

Israeli President Shimon Peres will make various Bay Area stops today in a historic visit to the Northern California region.

This is the first visit an incumbent Israeli president has made to the Bay Area.

Peres started his day at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park at 9 a.m. where the president launched his international Facebook page. He was accompanied by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Following the launch, Peres held a live interview at the Facebook studios where he will field questions from users all over the world. The Facebook Live event was hosted by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Peres' Facebook visit will conclude with a tour of the social networking giant's research and development centers, touted as an opportunity for the company to work on relations with Israel. The location of the Facebook launch event was not disclosed. 

The president will be presented as a guest of honor at a luncheon
at the Palo Alto Four Seasons Hotel at 12:30 p.m. The heads of various
venture capitol companies, including Accel, Sequoia, and Greylock, will join
the dignitary at the midday meal.

During the event Peres will discuss Israel as a destination for investment and research and development.

The president's day in the Bay Area will conclude with a speech at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco's Presidio Heights neighborhood. About 2,000 attendees, including state and city officials, are expected at the synagogue at 7 p.m. Gov. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee will present the Israeli president the key to the city. Tickets to attend tonight's event are sold out.

On Monday the president visited the IBM Almaden Research Center labs in San Jose and attended a dinner hosted by the chairmen and CEO of Cisco Systems.

Peres will continue his Bay Area visit through Wednesday.

--Bay City News