For me it was a bit difficult because I was taking a sabbatical from my job, so my employers didn't want to tell the Passport Agency that I needed a 2nd passport to travel for my work - and as I work in local government it was pushing it anyway!
I thought it was a bridge too far to try and forge anything, so what I did do was put together a letter saying I was going to be travelling for the purposes of writing (freelance) a travel book, and needed a 2nd passport as I would be travelling to 'incompatible countries'. In Passport Agency-speak this means Israel and other Arab countries ie countries that won't let you in if they see an offending stamp on your passport. If I can find a cc of this letter I will PM you.
I must say the Passport people were very helpful to me and they did assist me through the process, in terms of making suggestions about things I could do to bolster my claim. At their suggestion, for eg, I made some hotel bookings (and paid for them) in Israel. Luckily they weren't non-refundable!
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