AFP – Jews are the people of the Book but also the “people of the Facebook,” Israeli President Shimon Peres joked about his flashy new page — complete with electro-pop video — on the site.

“You have to speak the language of the young people,” the 88-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner laughed, when asked about the eye-popping “Be my Friend, for Peace,” video on the social network.

The former Israeli premier and foreign minister launched his Facebook account earlier this week at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, alongside the web giant’s founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg.

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.

Asked about joining Facebook at an event in Beverly Hills on Thursday night, Peres said that the Jewish people were a “people of the book,” but that they had now become a “people of the Facebook.”

“Neither the Iranians nor Syrians are enemies of ours, but rather the extremist leadership of these peoples,” the president told Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg during a live-streaming interview. In the opening post on his Facebook page, Peres invited residents of the Middle East to “join me and promote peace between the people.”

“The matter of peace is no longer the business of governments but the business of people,” Peres said. “Today the people are governing the governments. And when they begin to talk to each other, they are surprised: We should be friends.”

Peres praised Facebook for being a tool for positive social change by forging global connections. “What you are doing is convincing people that they don’t have any real reason to hate,” the president said. “Hatred is an unnecessary addition to our life.”

The Israeli statesman traveled 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.

After Thursday night’s event at the Beverly Hilton hotel, Peres was due to head Friday morning to the headquarters of Dreamworks Animation in Glendale, just outside Los Angeles.

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.