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It started with activists looking to the Middle East for inspiration, now Occupy Wall Street actually plans to go to the Middle East: On Thursday it approved $29,000 to send 20 observers to Egypt's election two weeks from now. Not all in the movement are happy about the decision, but with the protest encampment's budget swelling into the high six figures, they can certainly afford it. In yet another example of Occupy Wall Street becoming a microcosm of a larger society, it now has a foreign policy debate on its hands.

A lot of details about the Egypt trip still need working out, but the basic plan, according to the proposal that passed the General Assembly on Thursday night, is this: The organizers, at the behest of Egyptian civil society groups, will send 20 activists to Egypt to monitor the Nov. 28 elections. They'll consist of two to four representatives from six of the existing Occupy working groups, including press, movement building, direct action, mediation, and medical. The significance is mostly symbolic, but they say their participation will "work to protect and support the civilian monitoring efforts of Egyptian activists on the ground and constitutes a concrete stand against the use of American weapons against peaceful demonstrators." The $29,000 includes 20 tickets at $1,200 each, $20 per person for daily lodging, and $50 per person for daily food and transportation.