(The Hill) — A growing number of House lawmakers are pushing back against President Obama’s recent call to base Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on pre-1967 borders.

Echoing the concerns of Israeli leaders, the critics maintain that reverting to those boundaries — which existed prior to the Six Day War of 1967 — would endanger Israel and empower its enemies.

“It would undermine Israel’s strategic depth, increasing its vulnerability to both military invasions and the sorts of rocket and missile attacks that Hamas carries out in Gaza,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Friday in a statement. “Doubling down on failed policies will not lead to the changes we need. It’s time for the Obama administration to change course.”

Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) delivered a similar message, arguing that reverting the borders would only embolden Hamas to launch more attacks.

“A two-state solution agreed upon by the Israelis and Palestinians should be negotiated through direct talks,” Rothman said Friday in a statement, “but it is important to remember that a full return to the 1967 borders will be indefensible for Israel and that talking with terrorists who want to destroy Israel is a non-starter.”

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) echoed that sentiment, saying the 1967 borders “were simply not defensible, and Israel must not be made to return to them.”