Make must be executed twice

[lists]

I'm working on completely eliminating recursion from our build system.  
One problem I've come up with is having to run make twice to start 
building anything.  I've widdled down the makefile to the simplest 
version that still works.

We link all the source files into one folder and do the build there.  
The reason for this is long and complex but it's something we must maintain.

I'm guessing that the pattern substitution rule doesn't work unless the 
files are linked before make is executed.  So make has to be run once to 
link all the files, and then again to start building.  Here's my 
example, omitting the obvious definitions:

-
include /obvious_definitions.mk

DIRS := $(BUILD_DIR)
BUILD_DIR := /build
CLUSTER_NAME := importers
EXEC_SRCS := import_e.cc
SRCS_LIST := /importers/import_e.cc

EXECS := $(EXEC_SRCS:.cc=)
DEP  := $(SRCS:.cc=.d)

bin: links import_e

import_e: import_e.o
   $(CXX) -o $@ $(FLAGS) $<

links: $(DIRS)
   @ln -sf $(SRCS_LIST) $(BUILD_DIR)

$(DIRS):
   @echo Creating install dir $@
   @$(INSTALL) -d $@

%.o: %.cc
   $(CXX) $(MAKEDEPFLAGS) -c $(FLAGS) $<

.PHONY: clean bin links

# Include dependencies
ifdef DEP
ifneq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),clean)
-include $(DEP)
endif
endif # DEP
-

When I execute the make command, either with an empty build directory or 
no build directory, I get an error that there's no target for 
import_e.o.  If I run make twice, it's happy.

-
[user /build]$ make bin -n

ln -sf x /importers/import_e.cc /build
make: *** No rule to make target `import_e.o', needed by `import_e'.  Stop.

[user /build]$ make bin

make: *** No rule to make target `import_e.o', needed by `import_e'.  Stop.

[user /build]$ make bin

g++ -MD -c -g -I/include import_e.cc
-

Is there a solution to this that still allows me to link into and build 
from a /build directory?

-
natch