After the crisis in Tahrir Square finally deescalated through the courageous act of thousands of women marching to the square, demanding an end to violence, political leverage is being sought as parties propose plans to hurry the presidential elections. The military council succumbed to such pressure following the clashes of Mohamed Mahmoud Street off Tahrir, to guarantee elections before the end of June 2012. Current ideas now call for elections to be as soon as January 25, the one year anniversary of the revolution.

On the first day of voting, I took a morning stroll through our neighborhood to see the early activity surrounding our four public schools hosting parliamentary elections. Polls opened at 8am, and I crossed the street, walked a block, and began to observe.

This month, in what is now called Rabin Square, an event took place marking the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally by right-wing radical Yigal Amir. The commemoration began at around 7:30 PM Saturday night, with thousands showing up to pay their respects to the late Prime Minister. Many, including Yossi Sarid of the Meretz Party, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, and Eldad Yaniv of the National Left, spoke to those gathered, offering Israel’s struggling and wounded left-wing words of solace and encouragement.

Woodstock lasted a long weekend amid rain and mud; the Zuccotti Park encampment lasted two months amid rain and snow.

Neither was precisely planned. A for-profit music festival, Woodstock was relocated at the last minute due to pressure by neighbors, and then the gates, through which 50,000 ticketed concert-goers had been expected to walk through, were thrown open- free- to accommodate the nearly 500,000 who came. Same with the OWS movement; originally slated as a small sidewalk gathering alongside the charging Wall Street bull – it then got relocated at the last minute to the 1 acre Zuccotti Park due to pressure by managers at the original site.

9:30pm Local Time, Cairo, Egypt 11/20/2011

Right now, the crowd in Tahrir Square is in the tens of thousands and growing quickly.  The square itself has a very safe, communal feel to it, and many observers have likened the crowd to the crowds last January.

A couple of streets away, however, a battle between crowds of Egyptian youth and armed security forces is going on its 48th hour. According to the latest official count from the Health Ministry, six protesters have been killed and more 1300 injured over the last 24 hours alone. There are widespread reports that security forces are firing live ammunition along with tear gas, while protestors are throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks in response.