That's interesting. It could well be that the rules have changed. One of the main reasons in that part of the world for having two passports from the same country would have been, I imagine, for travel to Israel and to the countries that don't allow entry to travellers with evidence of a visit to Israel in their passport. Now that can mostly be avoided because Israel doesn't stamp pasports any more (although there could still be evidence, for example, from a stamp at a border crossing, e.g., from Jordan).