Shimon Peres Woos Silicon Valley

Israeli president is focusing on tech during four day visit.

 Israeli President and Nobel Laureate Shimon Peres is spending the week here in the Bay Area trying to woo business leaders into doing business with Israel.

The list of stops for the Israeli leader includes Facebook, Google, IBM, and the Launch Festival.

Monday morning the 88-year-old leader visited IBM's Almaden complex in San Jose.

The office is a research lab. Scientists demonstrated for the president a molecular model that helps with brain research.

On Monday, Mr. Peres talked about why science and education are so important to both Israel and the United States.

"If you want to look at what will happen in 10 years, go here, not to the stock exchanges, not to the banks. It's not money that produces money, it's science that produces money," Peres told NBC Bay Area reporter Scott Budman.

Budman noted that Israel is big in the world of technology and is second only to the U.S. in companies listed on the NASDAQ.

The president will spend Monday night with high-powered Bay Area executives at a dinner hosted by Cisco CEO John Chambers. President Peres is expected to use the occasion to make a pitch to the CEOs to increase investments and expand research and development centers in Israel.

Tuesday morning he heads to Facebook where he will meet with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. After he officially launches his presidential Facebook page, Mr. Peres will hold a special interview at the Facebook studios which will be broadcast online.   

 Tuesday night he will speak at San Francisco’s largest synagogue, Temple Emanu-El.

Thousands of people are expected to be in the audience for the 7:30 p.m. event which will also be livestreamed on line.

This is the first visit by a sitting Israeli President to this area ever.

The next stop for the Israeli leader is Los Angeles.

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