President Shimon Peres on Tuesday cancelled his trip to London for the opening of the Olympic Games.

The cancellation is not related to the International Olympic Committee's refusal to have a minute's silence in memory of the eleven Israeli athletes who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Rather it is to do with the upholding of religious Jewish practice.

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics will take place on a Friday evening. There are no hotels within walking distance of the stadium. Peres, who is a good walker, would not have mind walking the extra mile if there was a hotel at the end of it – but there isn't, aside from which it would place a most unenviable burden on his security detail.