This is shaping up to be the Monday of really bad ideas: Israeli minister ready to release jailed intifada leader.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli minister has said he would agree to releasing Marwan Barghuti, the charismatic Palestinian militant leader serving five life sentences in jail for planning suicide attacks.

“I will agree to such a release if it leads the Palestinian Authority to be truly opposed to terrorism and to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza,” Environment Minister Gideon Ezra told public radio Monday.

It is the first time that a current government minister has considered releasing Barghuti, Fatah’s widely popular West Bank leader who was a key player during the early days of the second intifada, or uprising, which began in September 2000.

“In any case, such a release which will come with other prisoners, will only be possible after the release of corporal Gilad Shalit,” added Ezra, a former internal security minister and a leading member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party.