She made a passionate plea to the Jewish community for less hatred and more tolerance at a Rebecca Sieff WIZO supper at the Moor Allerton Golf Club.

Mrs Fitzsimons seized the chance to recruit people to become 'ambassadors for Israel' and urged them not to take for granted that others disliked Israel.

"Don't presume," she said. "We are our best ambassadors and you just might be the authoritative source that others trust.

"Hate breeds hate. It is self-fulfilling and it eats at the very heart of the individual that hates."

Mrs Fitzsimons, who describes herself as a 'gentile, atheist, Zionist', recalled her student days. She was president of the National Union of Students (1992-94) having previously held the position of NUS vice president.

It was only when she became involved in national students' politics that she became aware of the Middle East, she said.

"You couldn't be a successful national student politician in my day and not know about the subject. There were two subjects that got discussed nationally - student finance or the Middle East - and you really had to know your onions about the latter.

"Having people involved in student politics who understand the history of Zionism is so crucial to the recruitment of many generations of people like me.

"It has taken me more than 12 years to get the level of trust that I have today, and I know how hard it is for the community to trust outsiders."

Mrs Fitzsimons, elected Labour MP for Rochdale in 1997, became one of Blair's Babes.

She recalled how she lost her seat in 2005 (to Lib-Dem Paul Rowen by 442 seats) because there was a 'hugely antisemitic campaign' against her.

She said: "That was because the presumption was that if I supported the State of Israel, if I supported Tony Blair and if I supported the war in Iraq, then I couldn't possibly be anything else but Jewish.

"The people who put out literature like that in Rochdale knew I wasn't (Jewish), but they purposefully and premeditatedly tried to play the antisemitic card because they thought in Rochdale that would shift votes. It was a very nasty campaign."

She warned against becoming over sensitive when people asked 'stupid questions'.

"Why, if you are not Jewish, would anybody know if something was offensive or not?" she asked.

"You have to take a deep breath and answer their questions as if they are innocent before presumed guilty."

She confessed that this was what happened to her 20 years ago.

"Initially the NUS allowed me to ask silly questions so that I could learn the answers and be comfortable with my support for Israel," she said.

"The important thing is to realise that it's all about confidence; quiet, not overt and certainly not shrill.

"The arguments haven't changed, you either believe in the Jewish right to national self-determination in the homeland or you don't."

Mrs Fitzsimons, whom Tony Blair once called 'a remarkable woman with a big future in politics', addressed her audience with an urgency of assignment.

"I'm not very good without a mission. You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist, you don't have to be Jewish to feel it is your responsibility to stand up for what is right," she declared.

"So take people by the hand. Your mission is to be courageous."

And the chief executive of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre had some home truths to impart to the 140-strong audience.

"We are ambassadors for our children," she said. "We are ambassadors by what we do. More attitudes are bred in home than they are at school. Bigotry is inculcated; presumptions and the foundations of disaster are laid."

Mrs Fitzsimons recalled her father who, when she was born, sent a photograph of her and her twin-sister to every world leader who had a nuclear capacity.

"Before you press the button," he wrote, "think about my twins."

She said: "He taught me that the most important thing in my life was not to walk on by, that somebody else's fight was my fight and that if I did not stand up for others who could I ask to stand for me.

"The biggest mission in my life is to bring my children up to never ever know how to hate. So I make a plea to you - please don't hate."

Mrs Fitzsimons, who said she genuinely believed that Israel will eventually triumph, told her audience that chiefly they have to watch their language and be aware of how pejorative people become through fear about the other.

"There is a lot to fear, there is, but the biggest fear is when we are not thoughtful and precise," she said.

"There is no presumption of evil of any race or any religion or any nationality. But there are individuals - and we all need to lead by example to bring the best out of everybody.

"You don't need to be the cleverest person in the world to have the most penetrating argument. You don't need a huge array of facts; you don't need to know every last thing about Israel's history.

"But one thing we can talk about is Israel - we are all wonderful talkers; we have a narrative and a history.

"We have a story to tell that has the benefit of being true and that is your shield, so reach out to other people - because that's how we find our advocates.

"But in the end you are our best advocates and our best ambassadors."

Openers were Amanda and Russell Manning and guest of honour was Gloria Ehrlich.