As Israel’s January 22 election approaches so does the political intrigue that’s swirling around it. Former Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz this morning announced that he is abandoning the Labor Party, where he was #3 on the party’s election slate, for The Movement party recently founded by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni. The move’s electoral consequences are difficult to forsee. Peretz carries with him a powerful union constituency that is bound to boost Livni’s party, but his alliance with Livni will be used by rival parties to link The Movement to Israel’s 2006 Lebanon II war against Hezbollah. Livni was foreign minister and Peretz was defense minister during that conflict, which is still viewed with mixed feelings in Israel because it finished without a decisive win for the Jewish state. The deadline for finalizing party lists is tonight. Among the parties seeking representation in the 19th Knesset are the Pirate Party, which is modeled and named after the Swedish party that advocates copyright liberalization, and the Green Leaf Liberal List, which has as its core advocacy exactly what the party’s name implies.