Can parallel traversals be done in MATLAB just as in Python?
for loops in MATLAB used to be slow, but this is not true anymore.
So vectorizing is not always the miracle solution. Just use the profiler, and tic and toc functions to help you identify possible bottlenecks.
Using the zip function, Python allows for loops to traverse multiple sequences in parallel.  
for (x,y) in zip(List1, List2):
Does MATLAB have an equivalent syntax? If not, what is the best way to iterate over two parallel arrays at the same time using MATLAB?