Religious politicians are usually considered to be on the right of the ideological spectrum. However, we look at three figures -- Iyad Jamal Al-Din in Iraq, Menachem Froman in Israel and Mehdi Karroubi in Iran -- who advocate pacifism and pluralism yet are grounded in traditional spirituality.

After 14 months of silence, Israeli and Palestinian leaders are set to hold indirect peace talks. For more, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Ghassan Shabaneh, assistant professor of international studies at Marymount Manhattan College, and Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Yesterday the Arab League gave the green light for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to engage in four months of indirect peace talks with Israel. Today, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the talks could begin as early as Sunday. Daljit Dhaliwal discusses developments with Martin Fletcher, former Tel Aviv bureau chief for NBC News.

Worldfocus associate producer Mohammad Al-Kassim traveled to Israel last December. He filmed at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village, where he found a diverse group of at-risk young people reinventing themselves through their studies.

Every Friday since 2005, Palestinian protesters have rallied in the town of Bil’in against the barrier erected by the Israeli government that effectively cuts off Palestinians there from their agricultural land. Last Friday, the fifth anniversary of the Bil'in demonstrations, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad joined 1,000 marchers. Read different perspectives on the protests.