With clockwork predictability, Iran and Syria push Hezbollah to attack Israel. Then, on the 12th day of the disastrous war they triggered, they offered to discuss the situation only with America, ignoring Israel.

For good measure, they threw into the bargain a Syrian demand for the return of the Golan Heights, which Israelis occupied back in 1967 and to which, incidentally, Syria has never moved a single soldier to fight for.

For its part, Iran, which supplies and funds Hezbollah via Syria, renewed an invitation for an “adult to adult” dialogue with America about Iran’s nuclear pursuits, as well as broader Persian Gulf security issues, including Iraq, oil, and Iranian hegemony. To Iran, these issues concern only it and America, not those in the region.

Adding insult to injury, the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, never one to pass up an opportunity to grab some headlines, promised Hezbollah would “repair” the extensive damage it brought upon Lebanon ($22 billion and counting). How? By persuading oil-rich Arabs, especially Saudi Arabia, which has been calling him names for the past couple of weeks, to use its “piles of money,” Sheik Nasrallah told Al-Jazeera. Now that’s chivalrous —and in the tradition of his masters, Iran and Syria — using someone’s country to start a war and someone else’s money to fix it.

For the uninitiated, this is called a Middle East Bazaar.

In the souks of the Greater Middle East, Syria and Iran see themselves as the best rug merchants, with the eager help of their gofer, Sheik Nasrallah. On the face of it, this is totally absurd, but in the labyrinths Middle East politics, it does make sense. Arabs understand it, as does Israel. So let’s take a moment here and explain the rules of this game to Uncle Sam, lest he stumble in unprepared.

While some of us strenuously advised America to stay out of Iraq back in 2002, many of us today believe America must enter the fray on its own terms — not Iran’s or Syria’s.

The objective is clear: to discredit, defeat, and humiliate Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria and the whole notion of jihadist and pseudo-Arab liberation thinking lurking in the region. Unlike Iraq, we have a lot of friends — in Turkey; Sunni Arab friends like Saudi Arabia and Egypt; Europeans, especially France, and millions among the Lebanese diaspora.

We can do this in three phases.The Israeli army is currently taking care of the first, slowly demolishing parts of the command and control structure of the Shiite Lebanese militia and preparing to invade and occupy their southern hideouts to demolish what’s left. We should ensure that Israel is unmolested and given diplomatic cover for several weeks, as well as weapons. In Phase 2, Syria — which has both threatened to push its own and the Lebanese army into war with Israel, even as it demands a cease-fire and negotiations with America — should be informed that B–52s from several American bases are being readied, along with some heavy bombers from NATO, to pulverize its airports, air force, army outposts, and the presidential palaces of President Assad if it so much as moves a fly into Lebanon or Israel. It is hoped that it does, so we can rid the Greater Middle East of a cancer. If, however, Syria does the usual, tucking its tail between its legs, we should make sure the whole world knows it blinked. Humiliation weakens rogue states internally.

In Phase 3, a senior American emissary, preferably the CIA chief, should be dispatched to a meeting in Geneva with Iran’s foreign minister. He should say something like, “Dear mullahs, there will be no dialogue with you, but talks with Europe, Russia, and other nations will continue until they tell us they have reached a deal with you to stop enriching uranium. We will initiate just one direct conversation with you concerning disarming Hezbollah, pulling out the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who are training them, destroying the entire stock of rockets you supplied, and suspending new deliveries. Only when you do will we have a word with our Israeli and Arab friends to discuss the next step, and with the international community to lift sanctions.”

Now, how much is that carpet worth to you?