Israel is going to commit war crimes and then the US will allow Israel to get away with it by blocking the enforcement of international law. But Biden will give speeches about human rights and he'll state "Israel has a right to defend itself" so there's that.

That seems likely. Israel doesn't actually do whatever the US tells it. Camping a whole goddamn carrier battle group on their porch might help reign them in while the US tries to paper this over before the Middle East explodes while world opinion is already against the US for this Ukraine shit and Saudi is considering breaking the petro-dollar.

I think they're supposed to be bait. Could also be a base of operations for electronic warfare (i.e. to counter Palestinian drone operations, which have been very successful over the past few days.)

Counterpoint: this is setting up a threat and target for any other countries or or orgs looking to get involved on the side of the Palestinians.

As a threat, it is a deterrent.

If they get attacked (including a false flag), it's an excuse to "help" Israel and otherwise further deploy bombers in the region.

I think it's more that the US has been itching for an opportunity to do a show of force without provoking wwiii

It's stated purpose is to attack any country which tries to interfere with Israel's genocide in Gaza