IT IS surely a grim irony of history that just as we mark the centenary of the beginning of the war to end all wars, the bitter conflict in Gaza has taken such a gruesome turn.

Reports of battles gone and those all too present have just now filled our television screens and the pages of our newspapers, and filled too perhaps the sorrowful cracks in our mind.

On Sunday night on ITV, there was one of many documentaries about the First World War.

These seem to have been coming for months and yet only now have we arrived at the point where war began 100 years ago.

Brothers In Arms: The Pals Army Of World War One was curious in some senses. It seemed rather tucked away for such a poignant programme. Also, the men being interviewed were long dead, most of them having left us around 15 years ago. Had this footage been seen before? It wasn’t entirely clear.

The old men here were once young men who answered Lord Kitchener’s call to raise a volunteer army, rushing to war filled with patriotism and a sense of duty and community.

Many volunteered with their friends, as the title Pals Army suggests.

The enthusiasm for this arrangement fell away as the war progressed, because friends who volunteered together also died together, while those who survived waited until the distance of old age before telling stories of the friends they had lost.

This simple but affecting film mostly concentrated on the faces of these men. There was something very moving in seeing old men cry as they spoke about the friends they had lost all those years ago. Time had folded creases into their faces, but their eyes were bright, until they filled with tears. It is hard to imagine what these men, these boys, went through.

The “war to end all wars” didn’t do that, of course, as history tells us – along with sober attendance of the night’s news on the television.

Those who comment on the situation in Gaza tend to fall into two camps, either condemning the Israelis for sending unrelenting death and misery on Palestinians in a one-sided war; or they support Israel and point out that Hamas cynically uses civilians as a human shield, firing missiles from residential areas.

Watching the news, it has certainly been difficult not to see Israel as the stronger side, using all of its military might without pause to reflect on the human cost. Or knowing the human cost perfectly well but seeing it as a necessary evil.

Among our politicians, perhaps surprisingly, it is Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader, who has spoken out most strongly.

At the weekend, Mr Clegg said that Israel should start face-to-face talks with Hamas, even though the group had been labelled as a terrorist organisation by the British Government. He saw this as the only way to stop the “deathly embrace”.

A dispassionate observer might wonder what the difference is between a terrorist and a well-armed military in terms of the loss of innocent lives.

Even the veteran Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames criticised the lack of response from his own government, saying that Israel’s actions went “beyond the pale”, adding that amongst his friends and colleagues, there was “very considerable anxiety about the feebleness of the government’s response”.

As for Downing Street accusing Labour leader Ed Miliband of “playing politics” with his comments on Israel, that was surely nonsense. Standing by and meekly saying nothing is merely playing a different sort of politics, isn’t it?

 

• WATCHING the Commonwealth Games on television, it was good to see coverage of sports at which I excel – sorry, strike that out and replace with “bumble around to faintly ludicrous effect”.

Squash came across well on television for the first time that I can recall, while badminton looked to be a thrilling display of astonishing athleticism, endless rallies and impossible returns, just as it is when we play with a group of friends every week.

Memo to 57-year-old self: don’t try jumping four feet in the air before smashing the shuttlecock as the players did on television. It is unlikely to end well.